


Fixing The Future

by Slayer_of_Destiny



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, M/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Rare Pair, Romance, Surprise Pairing, Team Cap don't come out the best
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:01:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24237703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slayer_of_Destiny/pseuds/Slayer_of_Destiny
Summary: Three weeks after the events of Civil War, a shocking headline is announced to the world. Tony Stark is missing. As the weeks go on and there is still no sign of Tony, people start to wonder if he is alive. What is found in the bunker makes this seem even more likely, can someone survive losing that much blood? The answer is no, not without intervention. Someone rescues Tony and helps heal him, and along the way, they form a relationship that might give Tony the strength to carry on.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Surprise Male Character
Comments: 231
Kudos: 918





	1. Missing

**Author's Note:**

> I have marked this Surprise Male Pairing because I want this to be a surprise, the Male character is from the Marvel Universe

Steve and the others could finally relax as they were housed in a small estate on the edges of Wakanda. He wasn't fully happy with the fact that Bucky wasn't with them, he had been taken right into central Wakanda, into the Capital to be treated. He had wanted to go with his friend, but T'Challa had explained that bringing outsiders into his country was not something that was allowed to happen unless for extreme circumstances, them being where they were was bad enough, and was causing rumblings with the King's Council.

Bucky needed help, and that was the only type of help he could receive in the Capital with the King's sister, but Steve and the others would not be allowed any further into the country than they already were without risking T'Challa being challenged.

He had wanted to press things but Natasha, newly joined up with them, had pointed out that T'Challa's reign had to be shaky, no matter the loyalty the Wakandan people clearly felt to the royal line, a change over of power was always a tenuous time in a country, and always the greatest risk of the new figure of power being challenged if it was thought that they were not the best for their country, or they were not putting their country and its people first.

He had still been ready to press it but then Natasha had pointed out that if T'Challa was taken from power, the next person on the throne would not have a sense of debt to Bucky and to healing him, at best they would find themselves thrown out the country, at worst they would have to fight themselves out. And Bucky was not up to that.

So, Steve wasn't happy but he had had no choice but to allow Bucky to be taken from his side yet again, and they were left to this estate.

It was beautiful, but with a sharp sense of shame, he realised that it was a major step down in the comfort that they had been used to living in thanks to Tony. He had caught the others making comments about how something wasn't as nice as their possession at home and then would freeze as they remembered whose money had bought them that possession and that they had betrayed him.

Things were tense and uncomfortable whenever the subject of Tony came up, or anything close to Tony. They were all shaken and upset with how quickly things had escalated, none of them had expected it to get this bad, and none of them really sure how it had happened.

Wanda was wandering around the estate listlessly, her interaction and fight with Vision at the Compound, and their interaction at the airport making it clear that what had been forming between them had been destroyed, that Vision was done with their relationship.

Clint had been shocked that the world had turned against them, and realisation was sinking in that he had left his family behind for this fight, and now he could not go back to them. He couldn't even contact Laura or the kids to speak to them without risking their safety considering there were a number of countries hunting them, and their own country seemed eager to find them and hand them over as proof that they weren't hiding and harbouring them.

Sam was looking torn about the fact that the choices they made had been treated so poorly. He still believed that the Accords were wrong, but he was shocked by how loud and vehement the world was about them, and Steve knew he was wavering a little as it was apparent that this was what a lot of people wanted.

Natasha was...hiding everything. She had told him that she had left Tony behind, telling him that he was allowing his own ego to get in the way of things and that she didn't believe in the Accords and what he was trying to do, and for the reasons, he was doing them. Steve was glad to have her at his side again, and it made him feel more secure knowing that she had chosen his side, it helped him know he had made the right choice. And she had risked more than them for this because she had signed the Accords, they had a certain about of wiggle room if they were caught considering they hadn't agreed and signed the Accords.

It was all a little bit of a mess though, and Steve was working out a way to get a note and phone to Tony to start contact with the other man, to hopefully start smoothing over the events that had happened between them. He knew that Tony would be angry and would be licking his wounds and the fact that he had lost to Steve and Bucky, that meant that Steve had to wait to get in contact for a little while, Tony was more likely to do something silly if he was still angry and worked up.

Steve felt bad for what had happened, things had gotten out of control he admitted that to himself, the fight had escalated for too quickly, and he had reacted more viciously than was probably needed considering the situation, but Tony had tried to kill Bucky.

He kept telling himself that he had had no choice.

He wondered when he would believe it.

He wondered when he would stop hearing the words 'So was I' echoing around his head.

He wondered when he would stop hearing the clang on vibranium being repeatedly hammered into the Iron Man suit.

He wondered when he would stop seeing the fear in those brown eyes that normally looked at him with warmth and friendship, eyes that had been scared for his life and sure that Steve was about to kill him as he tried to protect his face and throat from the shield.

He wondered when he would stop hearing the rattle in Tony's chest and smell blood on the air as he had walked away and left Tony in his suit in the freezing cold of Siberia.

"We need to leave, now, pack the essentials," Clint's face was cold and hard when he walked into the room.

"What?" Natasha frowned confused looking up from the sofa.

"We need to pack essentials and get out of Wakanda now! T'Challa is no doubt on his way and I don't think it is going to be pretty when he gets here!" Clint threw a paper at her. Steve watched confused, sharing a look with Sam as fear flashed across her face.

"Pack now!" She ordered hurrying to her feet, grabbing a bag from under the sofa and started throwing their Starkpads and phones in.

"What, we can't leave Wakanda, Bucky…" Steve started protesting.

"If you want to stay out of prison, and hope that T'Challa carries on treating Bucky despite whatever you did, you need to pack now!" Clint growled refusing, pointedly, to look in their direction.

"What?" Natasha threw the paper at him before hurrying into her bedroom, the sound of draws being unceremoniously dragged out the dresser and dumped reached them.

Steve and Sam crowded around the paper, and Steve's blood ran cold with panic as he took in the headline, needing to read it five times before the words really sunk in.

_Stark Industries CEO Virginia Potts finally admits Tony Stark has been missing for three weeks._


	2. The Truth

Chapter Two

_Stark Industries CEO Virginia Potts finally admits Tony Stark has been missing for three weeks._

_Stark Industries has been silent upon the fact that Tony Stark has not been seen anywhere for three weeks now, mutterings beginning to form only a week into this disappearance when no statement was made by the Billionaire Superhero about the events that have been come to be known as The Civil War._

_You would have to been living in the middle of the Sahara to not know about the events of The Civil War. The events of which have led to Captain America, Black Widow, The Falcon, Scarlet Witch, The Winter Soldier and Hawkeye to be the most wanted people in the world, their pictures can be found below, with multiple countries seeking for their arrest._

_The world has been shaken to its core by the events of The Civil War where the seemingly unshakable Avengers team were split in two and ended up fighting against each other in the now-infamous airport fight._

_Had it not been for the quick actions of Mr Stark and his team, likely there would have been a lot of people injured in the fight, but they managed to evacuate the area quickly. However, during the fight, the right-hand man of Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, Colonel James Rhodes, Aka War Machine, was seriously injured in the fight trying to apprehend those now being called The Rogues. It has been confirmed that he is alive and out of intensive care, but it is uncertain as to whether he will ever be able to walk again due to spinal injuries sustained during the fight._

_Mr Stark was seen and known to be alive and well after leaving the airport with the arrests of Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Antman and The Falcon. Captain America and The Winter Soldier managed to escape._

_However, Mr Stark has not been seen since he left the airport. No sign of him at all._

_The world has begun to mutter and has begun to wonder what exactly has happened to Tony Stark. The internet has exploded with different theories and accusations being fired in all direction, including that the Government has arrested and detained Tony Stark to punish him for his team disappearing, something that the Government, and then the UN have actually had to make statements about to deny this._

_With the break out of the Rogues from the prison, that they had been placed in after the airport fight,_ _barr Scott Lang, AKA Antman who chose not to go on the run due to his family,_ _by Captain America and Black Widow, a low muttering seems to have started spreading around the world pointing the finger at the Rogues for Tony Stark's disappearance._

_This seems to have been increased by the release of the information that The Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, was being added to the list of Rogues, despite the fact that she was seen fighting on Tony Stark's side at the airport. If she betrayed him after the fight, was he ambushed and attacked by those that he once saw as teammates? Have they abducted him? Are they planning on using him as blackmail and leverage? Are they going to hurt him?_

_But, in the last week, another whisper, one filled with fear and trepidation has started up._

_What if Tony Stark is dead? What if the Rogues killed him? What if he went after Captain America and the Winter Soldier to try and bring them in along with the rest, and they killed him?_

_Once upon a time, not too long ago, the world would have scoffed at the idea of Captain America having hurt Iron Man, the idea that he might have killed him would have caused an uproar. However, it has been proven that Captain America is not the man that we thought he was. He chose to not only ignore the cry of 117 countries asking for some accountability and structure to the Avengers and others like them, to make sure that the actions that they were taking were made for good choices and did not fall into the realms of vigilantism, did not ignore laws and just do whatever they liked, wherever they liked, and just announced that the damage that had been done, the lives that had been lost had been unavoidable, Captain American also chose to physically fight this bill, known as the Accords, instead of talking to the UN to negotiate the terms of the Accords the way Tony Stark apparently was preparing to do._

There was a startling lack of concern for civilians safety as he made his escape with The Winter Soldier, he and the other Rogues collapsing a tunnel with civilians inside to facilitate their escape.

_Has Captain America lost all control and killed Tony Stark?_

_And what does this mean for the world? Iron Man has been our longest and most steadfast hero. Tony Stark has made the world a more peaceful place, in America, crime rates have seriously dropped with Iron Man stepping in and helping police. Iron Man was the one who was seen during the Battle of New York fighting and defending the public from the Chitauri before anyone else arrived, fighting throughout the whole battle, and flew a Nuclear weapon through a wormhole into space that nearly claimed his life._

_Iron Man has become part of the world's DNA, and Tony Stark with his inventions, designs and ideas on clean energy, has become a part of the DNA of the world, and everyone is asking...what happens without him?_

_Finally, Stark Industries CEO, and ex-girlfriend of Tony Stark, Virginia Potts has released a statement about Tony Stark and the fact he was missing. Many were hoping that when Stark Industries finally released a statement it would be to say that Mr Stark had been hurt in the battle and had been in medical care, but was fine and would be back in no time._

_This was not the statement that we received. The statement was short, to the point, and raises more questions:_

_'Stark Industries are aware of the concern of those asking where Mr Stark is and would like to release the following statement._

_Mr Stark is missing in action, no one seems to know where he is, and what has happened to him. We have been using all possible technology available to us to try and track him down, but so far have had no success._

_We are working with multiple outside agencies to try and discover his whereabouts and what has happened to him, but have been unsuccessful at this time. The Iron Man suit that Tony Stark was wearing upon his disappearance is being traced currently, however, this has been complicated by the fact that the self destruct program was triggered, which means that the suit was damaged beyond repair and Mr Stark was forced to remove himself from it. This protocol was put into place to stop enemies from gaining control of the suit._

_We are not treating Mr Stark as anything but MIA and possibly injured, and will continue looking for him until we find him. This is not the first time that Mr Stark has gone missing and has managed to survive and make his way back to the world, and we have no doubt that it is something that he will manage again._

_It has been requested that queries and requests for an interview not be made, as you can imagine this is an extremely upsetting time, and we ask for some respect and common decency._

_We will make another statement at a later date in time._

_Thank you._

* * *

They had barely made it out of Wakanda, the shouts and chase had been close, especially considering they were limited in their weaponry, which they had been forced to give up, but had had no choice to get asylum in the country.

The following escape through various towns and villages had been fraught with difficulty to try and hide their identities, but they had been able to make it to a city where they could disappear and lay low temporarily to work out how to get out of Africa.

It was also the first time that they had had time to talk about anything but the next hour and how to avoid being caught.

"The only way that the self destruct protocol would be able to take place is if the suit was destroyed, Tony managed to get out, but couldn't deactivate it manually," Natasha turned to Steve, her eyes flashing.

"I know that, we all know that," Steve said, clenching his hands together as fear flashed through him.

"What. Did. You. Do. To. Him?!" Clint managed to get out through teeth gritted so hard that it was amazing he didn't crack them.

"He was fine when we left!" Steve defended himself.

"Clearly not Steve. He is missing! The suit self-destructed!" Sam choked out before covering his face.

"What happened? You said that you and Bucky were forced to fight him, but that he was ok, just that the suit was temporarily deactivated when you left him!" Clint had a look of horror forming on his face, horror because he was putting two and two together.

"I told you what happened!" Steve growled.

"And you never lie, or hide things do you, Steve? You never omit things?" Natasha said softly. Everyone turned to look at her.

She was sitting with her arms on her knees, her head down and her shoulders tensed hard as though she was trying to force herself to stay together. She was putting things together as well, but she had more pieces than Clint.

"What do you mean by that Natasha?" Sam frowned between her and Steve.

"Natasha…" Steve part begged part tried to order.

"What are you talking about Tash?" Clint narrowed his eyes.

"Steve has been keeping from Tony that Bucky Barnes, The Winter Soldier, murdered Howard and Maria Stark," Natasha said the words, and Steve's world crashed.

"No...it was a car accident, that is what all the reports say!" Clint shook his head.

"The data dump, I dug up everything that I could on The Winter Soldier from HYDRA files for Steve to help him track down Barnes. Part of that was a mission that HYDRA had used the Winter Soldier for, to kill Howard Stark and take the potential of what they thought was a successful version of the Serum. Leave no witnesses. There was a video of him killing them, there is no doubt. HYDRA covered it up, Howard Stark's drinking was no secret, pegging it up to drink driving didn't take much. Steve said he would tell Tony, he didn't," Natasha explained.

"You...fuck you kept that from Tony, for two years!" Sam stood looking horrified. "You were using his money to find Barnes!"

"I planned to tell him I did! But I wanted him to see Bucky first, to see how damaged that he was, to understand that it wasn't Bucky who did it, that it was HYDRA, that they fucked with Bucky's head!"

"Was that why he attacked in the Bunker? Did he find out?" Clint closed his eyes.

"Zemo...he had a video...the video...he showed us and Tony, he went off the deep end!"

"I wonder why! Geez, I wonder why he didn't control himself after finding out his parents were murdered and saw the man who killed them standing right in front of him!" Sam threw his hands up.

"It wasn't…."

"Bucky yes we know! Problem is when you watch someone you care about murdered in front of your eyes, when you have old scars ripped open and made even worse, logic isn't the first thing that jumps to your head! Fuck! You made it sound like Tony jumped off the deep end and attacked you so that he could arrest you!"

"He did attack us!"

"Because he was looking at his parents killer and the man that lied to him for years! You ganged up on a man who had just found out that his parents had been murdered!" Sam shook his head.

"How badly was he hurt? How badly did...did...you hurt him, Steve? And the truth this time!" Natasha warned.

"He was alive when I left!" Steve snapped.

"DEFINE ALIVE!" Clint roared angrily. "There are many ways that someone can be alive when you leave them and not get back up!"

"Especially when you leave them in a bunker in Siberia with only a flight suit to keep them warm," Natasha added lowly.

"He was...injured...but alive," Steve said more hesitantly this time.

"Is there a chance...is there a chance Tony could have died left unaided?" Natasha closed her eyes.

"Someone would have come for him, Vision, FRIDAY would have called for help when the suit went offline," Steve argued.

"Except for the fact that no one knows where his last location was, no one knows where it is that the suit deactivated and self-destroyed, which means that no one went for him," Sam covered his face.

"I don't understand why it matters, without Stark arguing against us, it is going to be easier to go back, with no Iron Man they will need the rest of us," Wanda spoke up for the first time from where she was curled in an armchair.

They all stared at her.

"I hate to break this into your pretty little world view where Tony is the ultimate villain, but Iron Man is loved, Tony Stark is loved, and even before it came out that Tony is missing, people were not on our side. If it turns out that...that Steve and Barnes...killed Tony Stark, it isn't going to end with us being brought back into the fold, it is going to end with a witch hunt and we will all hang for it!" Natasha growled out.

"The ONLY way we were getting back into the fold is if Tony worked to help get us pardoned, or the apocalypse," Clint closed his eyes. "Oh god,"

"Also, despite everything, Tony Stark was our friend, if you think we're going to cheer and dance on his grave, you have another thing coming," Sam shook his head disgusted.

Their heads all snapped around to Steve when he made an odd noise before dropping to his knees. They stared at him completely stunned before the next thing they knew he was throwing up all over the floor, going straight to dry retching before throwing up again.

"What the…" Clint stepped forward.

"He's having a fucking panic attack!" Sam hurried forward, and despite everything grabbed Steve and wrestled him into a better position to breathe while Natasha grabbed the bin for him and shoved it into Steve's hands.

"I killed him, oh god, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, what did I do, I just..I just wanted it to stop and...he was my friend, he was, I...killed him...I killed him," Steve sobbed between increasingly desperate breaths before he threw up again, only just making the bin when Natasha shoved his head forward.


	3. The Avengers

Chapter Three

_Tony Stark missing for two months_

_The title doesn't really need much explaining, the world is filled with talk of Tony Stark and where he is._

_With us hitting the two-month mark since Tony Stark went missing, things are looking worse and worse for the survival of the genius._

_And the world is sorely feeling his loss. The stock market despite the best attempts of CEO Virginia Potts has been crashing as stockholders are panicking and trying to sell their SI stocks, crime has been rising, and there has been panic forming throughout the world._

_All is not hopeless though, enhanced beings have been coming out of the woodwork, in Tony Stark's name to take up the space left by the absence of Iron Man, and they are able to do this because Virginia Potts and Colonel James Rhodes has taken up where Tony Stark left off with the Accords, apparently, he left detailed notes and plans for the Accords and how he would fight to make them more even on the side of enhanced beings, while still ensuring that they were offering the safety that countries were demanding._

_They are working hard in the debates of the Accords, pushing for the changes that Tony Stark planned for._

_But the question has to be asked. Is Tony Stark still alive?_

* * *

"I...I don't think that he could have survived that," Rhodey gulped and turned away from the large pool of blood on the floor next to the destroyed Iron Man suit, and the thick trail of blood leading away from it to finish in another, larger pool of blood.

He lay in the Iron Man suit bleeding out, managed to get himself out of it and lay next to it bleeding out, before managing to drag himself around 6 foot away, no doubt to try and evade the self-destruction of the suit. He wouldn't have made it far enough away to not be caught in the blast, and he clearly lay bleeding out.

"Where is his body though?" Vision frowned looking around the Bunker confused.

"Vision, a human can't survive losing this much blood without immediate help, extensive medical help. None of the hospitals or doctors has had anyone fitting Tony's description in. Even if...he can't have survived Vision,"

"But where is he?" Vision frowned moving around the Bunker.

The signs of the fight that had taken place were clear, the signs of Iron Man's lesser weapons were visible all over the place when Rhodey also looked around, forcing his military head-on and looking around as an Avenger and not as Tony's best friend, his brother.

"He wasn't using lethal force," Rhodey managed to say.

"I agree, these are not his lethal weapons, they appear to have been unused," Vision nodded.

"He was pulling his punches, but why?" Rhodey frowned looking around again, this time cancelling out anything that was clearly not created by Iron Man, and focusing on the damage Tony had left. "This was a serious fight, why would he pull his punches?"

"I think I can answer that Colonel," Vision said lowly a few moments later, fury clear in his voice. Rhodey steeled himself as he walked over to where Vision was staring, the android was getting better at inflecting his emotions into his tone, but most of the time he still sounded robotic, for him to sound this angry...it wasn't going to be good.

He carefully moved his chair around the piles of rubble until he reached where Vision was floating.

"I removed this rubble where I noticed there was something shiny under it," Vision grit out.

Rhodey took a breath and peered over more of the rubble to see what Vision had found. His heart stopped when he recognised the red, white and blue colours. He had been expecting that this had something to do with Steve for a couple of months now, he thought he had steeled himself for the betrayal, but still, seeing his shield lying there…

"Oh god," He leant forward covering his face.

"There...there is blood on the edge of the shield," Vision pointed a shaking hand.

"We need to bag it and take it back to be checked again...against Tony's DNA," Rhodey said absently, staring at the hints of crimson he could indeed see on the edge of the shield. He turned his head away feeling sick, but his eyes caught on something else. "Vision, over there, that chunk of metal seems out of place,"

Vision turned to look where Rhodey was indicating, and using his powers managed to move the rubble from the metal, and then the two of them stared at the object that was revealed, no doubt who that belonged to.

"So, two Super Soldiers against Tony when he was pulling his punches," Rhodey licked his lips fighting back the urge to cry or throw up.

"They did not seem to be pulling their punches," Vision stated.

"We need to bag that as well," Rhodey sighed.

He watched sadly as Vision floated around the Bunker, desperately scanning for anything that could indicate what had happened to Tony. Their relationship was difficult and had been complicated by Vision's relationship with Wanda and her hatred of Tony, but to Vision Tony was his father, along with Bruce and Thor, but neither of them had been around, where Tony had, helping him get used to the world and experience it. How things had finished with Wanda made Vision feel even worse when he realised that he had sacrificed time and closeness with Tony for a woman who had put him through three floors.

He had given them the statistics on the amount of time he had wasted not spending with Tony because of Wanda and something she wanted, and he and Pepper had had to nip that in the bud, the two of them were seriously concerned for the android.

"Someone else was here," Vision said and Rhodey head snapped up, shoving his wheelchair over the rubble, uncaring for the chunks that would likely be getting into his wheels. He grunted in pain as the wheelchair slammed over a chunk of rubble, hurting his still healing spine, but he reached where Vision was looking and scanned the floor himself.

"What are you seeing?" He asked.

"There is the outline of footprints in the edges of Tony's blood here, just the toes, but it would have had to be made when the blood was drying but still wet,"

"Remind me not to scold you for watching all those forensic shows for at least a month," Rhodey muttered.

"And here, someone moved Tony in his blood, you can see the signs of the drying blood being disturbed before more blood covered it," Vision pointed to another area, though it made him feel sick Rhodey looked where he was pointing. "I am not sure what this is either, I need to take some to be analysed,"

Rhodey watched Vision rub his fingers through what looked like burnt dirt on the edges of the blood pool, before withdrawing a swab and carefully collecting a sample.

"We need to take samples of the blood as well, it is...it is obvious whose it is, but we need confirmation," Rhodey sighed.

"He could be alive," Vision said softly.

"He could be, but...Vision this amount of blood, even if someone did take him, it would be a miracle that he survived without the best medical help, we don't know who took him, and the likelihood...the chances are whoever took him didn't have access to that type of medical care. We will look for him, of course, we will, if there is even the slightest chance that Tony is still alive, but...but Vision we need to prepare ourselves," Rhodey took the Android's hand.

"I will collect the arm, shield and blood samples, you should start making your way back to the jet," Vision said.

Rhodey sighed again but muttered his agreement and headed back to where they had parked the jet, they had been in a hurry and not really cared about careful parking, when FRIDAY and Vision had finally been able to track to the location on where the suit self-destructed he and Vision had barely gotten the go-ahead from the Accords before they had been flying out.

Reaching the jet he looked up to the Bunker to see Vision floating sadly over where Rhodey thought the second pool of blood was, just hovering staring down at it. Rubbing his face, he angrily scrubbed away the tears that had formed without his permission, before he dialled into Pepper's line.

"Rhodey, what did you find?" Pepper asked as soon as their line connected. She looked...well terrible. Her hair was unwashed for who knew how many days and tied back uncaringly, she was pale and drawn, and the bags under her eyes were clear even over the phone.

"It's...it isn't good Pep. Someone has taken him, but, there is...there is so much blood here Pep, he wouldn't have survived without a miracle. We found St...Roger's shield and Winter Soldier's arm. Tony was holding back in the fight, he didn't use any of his big-hitting weapons, they weren't holding back,"

"H...h...how is Vision?" Pepper's voice was wrecked.

"Not good, not good at all," Rhodey sighed.

"What do we do Rhodey?" Pepper begged.

"We look for him, if anyone can find a miracle it's Tony and as long as there is a chance he is out there, we look," Rhodey said with a determination he just didn't feel.

"Ok, I will be ready when you come back," Pepper nodded.

"We're bringing back some evidence, some of the blood, the shield has blood on it, the arm, and something left behind hopefully from whoever took Tony's...took Tony,"

"I will have the scientists ready, the whole of the Science floor will be waiting for the evidence," Pepper looked better having something to do.

"See you soon Pep,"

* * *

_"See you soon Pep,"_

The line cut off leaving the Rogues sitting around Natasha's laptop staring at the screen.

Steve was looking suspiciously green under the pale, gaunt look he had been supporting for the last month.

"Well, this...this is pretty...fuck," Sam sat down with his head in his hands.

"His body wasn't there, that means he might be…" Steve said hopefully.

"You heard Rhodes Steve, there was too much blood!" Natasha snapped, standing and going to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea, purely for something to do.

Steve stared at the laptop as though he could somehow change the conversation that they had managed to tap into, he had tricked himself into thinking that what they would hear would be something different when Clint's source had told them that they had tracked down the Bunker and Rhodey and Vision were on their way there.

The conversation though, it wasn't good. It wasn't good at all. It might be the time that Tony was out if miracles. And Steve had killed him.

He made his way absently to his bedroom, no one arguing it. They couldn't look at him. He thought that the only reason he wasn't handed over to the nearest Task Force looking for them weeks ago was that they knew that he hadn't meant to kill Tony, and that he was tearing himself apart over it, and that they needed to stick together right now.

He also thought that Natasha and Clint were suspicious that he might spill on everything, including them to try and alleviate some of his guilt. So they weren't letting him out their sight.

They couldn't really look at him though, and they could barely look at him some days. He could barely look at himself some days, he felt as though he could feel Tony's blood on his hands all the time. He couldn't sleep because all he could see was Tony's eyes filled with fear, hear his wheezing breaths that meant that he wasn't ok as Steve carried Bucky away.

And when he wasn't in the Bunker, he was with Tony, going over the hundreds of moments that he had spent with the other man, laughing and talking to him, sharing late nights together, those nights when Steve had come back to the Tower after the New York fight, and Tony had stayed up late showing Steve different things to catch him up on history, and taught him about technology, carefully working from basic to difficult in a clearly planned way to help Steve understand.

All those moments of their friendship that he had thrown away because he didn't want to make life difficult for himself and risk losing Tony's money to find Bucky. He had gone through a thousand different ways he could have told Tony, and his brain had come up with a thousand different ways things could have gone differently if he had just told Tony.

After everything that had happened Tony had gone to Siberia to help him, because despite it all Tony was still his friend, still his teammate, he still wanted what was best for the world. And Steve had killed him.

He had killed his friend.

He had completely lost who he had been when he had been chosen for the gift of the Serum. He had to wonder if the serum made you evil if having the strength and the power that he did made him evil. But that would be too easy to blame, no it had been on him, he had become so sure of himself and his choices he had stopped listening to others, he had stopped looking around and realising that there were other choices and opinions out there. If it didn't match with his opinion then it was wrong.

He had read through Tony's amendments to the Accords, what he had planned to change, he had told them he was planning on getting them changed, and they were...good. There were still things that Steve didn't agree with, but then if he had just signed the damned things he would have had an input again.

If he hadn't been so sure of how Tony would react, he might have told Tony about Bucky and everything, everything would have been different!

Zemo didn't destroy the Avengers. He had.

And he had killed the man who had been a good friend to him.

* * *

"Tasha?" Clint frowned walking into the kitchen. It was stupid o'clock in the morning, but that didn't really mean much for them. Between being on the run, and the nightmares that they all had, sleep patterns weren't exactly healthy.

But she looked bad as she sat there staring at her cup of tea looking a thousand miles away.

"I keep remembering my last conversation with him," Natasha said quietly, and Clint sat down at the table heavily. There was no need to ask who he was. It was the person who wasn't far from any of their minds.

"Me too. I blamed him for everything, it wasn't his fault, it wasn't his at all, but he was there and I just...we always were so quick to throw the blame onto him weren't we. I jumped to the conclusion with what he was doing with Wanda, that he was locking her away till he could get her arrested, I thought that was what he had wanted all along. It's why I dived back in. Hindsight though...he was trying to protect her, mainly from herself, if the last few months have shown anything, she is a spoiled entitled brat who has no grasp of the consequences of her actions and thinks she can just use her powers to get away with everything. And we're partially to blame for that, we coddled her, and treated her like she was a kid when she was an adult. But any time Tony tried to make her realise she couldn't just throw her powers at things, we turned it on him. Hearing her the last few months, the way she talks about Tony...I don't know her at all," Clint shook his head.

"I accused him of letting his ego get in the way when he wanted to chase after Steve. He had just found out that Rhodey was probably going to be paralysed, he was hurting and angry, understandably, he wanted to go after them because he knew it was better the Avengers than Ross' Task Force. He covered by back, he told me that he had protected me from Ross, and I basically threatened him and told him he should watch his own back. I didn't thank him from stopping me from ending up in the Raft as well, I threatened him. Maybe if I hadn't goaded him like that, if I hadn't turned my back on him and betrayed him, he would have taken me with him, and I couldn't have helped, I could have controlled things. If he hadn't been there alone with the two of them. He accused me of not being able to let go of the double spy thing, and I got all offended and angry, and then did exactly that, running to Steve and betraying Tony," Natasha looked at Clint, turmoil clear in her eyes.

The two of them sat silently for a while just staring at the wall over the others shoulder, allowing the silence surrounding them to smother them.

"There are so many what-ifs," Clint sighed.

"And so many of them are, if we had been better, if we hadn't all be so quick to sacrifice Tony, things might have been different," Natasha sighed.

"You can't blame yourselves, this is all on me," Steve said from the shadows, walking into the kitchen and hovering on the edge of the shadows.

"Sorry to break this to you Cap, but you're not allowed to claim all the blame for this. Even your state of mind is partially on us," Clint snorted.

"My state of mind?" Steve frowned.

"We should have forced you to try therapy, you're brain has to be scrambled eggs after all the shit you have been through, and we knew you weren't doing good, I knew that you weren't coping well with what you found out about Bucky, the fact that he had killed Howard - who we keep forgetting was your friend - leaving it on you to tell Tony while you were chasing around after Bucky not knowing what the hell was going on with him. Coping after waking up 70 years in the future to find out hey aliens are real, the collapse of SHIELD taking away the only steady thing you had had in your life since waking, all of it. You lost control, you shouldn't have, but you had basically been crying out for help for years and none of us helped you. We just cheerfully left you to it, ignoring that you were a bomb ready to go off," Natasha sighed.

"I'm not…" Steve fought back his automatic reaction to the accusation that he mentally needed help. He clearly did. He killed a friend. "It isn't an excuse for what I did,"

"No, but it is a reason, you didn't kill him because you wanted to, you killed him because you couldn't stop yourself, once you were moving I don't think mentally you could see the difference between friend and foe," Clint shrugged.

"Doesn't change what happened though," Steve said softly.

"No it doesn't, none of our regrets changes what has happened," Natasha agreed.

* * *

"Hey kid," Happy sat down on the pavement next to Peter. "You have been out here for a while,"

"Have you been watching me?" Peter smiled softly.

"Tony told me to keep an eye on you, going to be doing that kid," Happy squeezed his shoulder.

"I just…" Peter scowled at his hands as tears filled his eyes, looking away from the shrine that had been erected at the base of the Avengers Tower for Tony Stark. "I met him before you know, before he figured out I was Spiderman,"

"Really?" Happy blinked at him.

"At the Stark Expo, I was a kid. I lost my parents and I was scared. I couldn't run even though everyone was running around me. One of the suits landed in front of me and I raised my hand with my fake thrusters. Tony landed behind me, blasted away the suit and then told me 'good job kid', I thought for years that I had done it. He saved my life," Peter sniffed, wiping a tear that started falling.

"He cares for you a lot kid,"

"What...what if he doesn't come back?" Peter asked shakily.

"He has faced so much in the past and always come back, have faith kid, and be here and ready for him when he does," Happy looked at Peter seriously. "That means you stop taking the risks that you have been,"

"I'm just so angry and sad at the same time and I…" Peter clenched his fists looking down.

"Here, this is Harley Keener's number, he and Tony was close as well. He's struggling too, maybe talking will help both of you,"

"We were sort of adopted by Tony Stark and miss him help group?" Peter managed to smile.

"Tony would want you to give it an acronym," Happy smiled helping Peter to his feet and guided him towards the car.

* * *

"It's Tony's blood," Rhodey sighed putting the paper with the results down onto the table.

"Yes," Pepper nodded sharply.

"The other result?" Vision asked.

"Unknown, we are still working on it," Pepper answered sliding what they did have across the desk for Rhodey and Vision to look at.

"What if it is…" Vision was cut off when the door to Pepper's office opened and two people walked in.

"Director Fury, this is a surprise," Pepper raised an eyebrow standing.

"Not director anymore, just Fury," The man grinned.

"And this is?" Pepper glanced at the blonde woman behind Fury.

"Carol?!" Rhodey spluttered wide-eyed.

"Yes," The woman turned to him.

"I knew you at base camp, I heard you disappeared," Rhodey frowned.

"I did, gained superpowers, got kidnapped, hand my memory wiped, you know the normal, my memory is still quite spotty I'm sorry," She looked at him intently, clearly trying to remember.

"James…"

"Rhodes!" Carol grinned nodding. "I remember you, you always treated Maria and me fairly,"

"Rambeau? I remember her, you two were amazing pilots!" Rhodey managed to smile a little.

"Can I ask why you are here Fury?" Pepper asked.

"Tony Stark," Fury said, and they all blinked at the hint of sadness in his tone. "The Avengers are important to him, I don't want what the Rogues have done to destroy what he worked longer than anyone else on to make sure that it worked. So, until Mr Stark's return, I have called in reinforcements,"

"I'm Carol Danvers," Carol waved.

"I have also spoken to Xavier, he and the Xmen will be willing to help you, especially after all the hard work the two of you have put in for the Accords, making sure that Stark's work didn't go to waste," Fury explained.

"You want us to what...rebuild the Avengers?" Rhodey frowned.

"You got anything better to do? Besides what do you think Stark will do to you when he gets home and finds out you allowed his house to fall down in his absence?" Fury raised his eyebrow at them.

"I...think that it is what Tony would want," Vision said quietly.

"And it will stop you all moping around here! Honestly, if there is a man too stubborn to die and able to pull more miracles out his arse than Stark, I would love to meet him. Why do you think I called him above all the others in New York when the nuke was coming in, if anyone could pull it off and survive it was Stark!" Fury...scolded them.

"You helped build the Avengers to what they were, the mess they were, you sent Nat...Romanoff to spy on Tony, and you based all your opinion of him on what she said," Rhodey narrowed his eyes. "And yet you think that you have the right to stand there and tell us what Tony would or wouldn't want?"

"Years ago, I sat in my office, having just had my first dealing with aliens and realising that there had to be other special people in the world. I wanted to create a team from that moment, not weapons, protectors, good people. Tony was the first person that I knew was right for the Avengers. I allowed my judgement to become clouded by someone that I trusted, not thinking for a second that her she would allow her personal judgements to cloud things. I am not the first person to place faith in someone I trusted and to find it was a mistake, and I won't be the last. I do however fix my mistakes,"

"The Avengers?" Pepper asked.

"The Avengers. Tony Stark poured everything he had into the Avengers from when he first heard about it, because he and his big brain knew that it was what the world needed. I am going to do it right this time, the way I imagined in that office, and it is going to be in his name. So when he gets his arse back here, he's going to have something to come back to, and know that this is right where he belongs!" Fury growled.

"I'm in," Vision nodded.

"Me too," Rhodey smiled a little.

"Me too," Pepper stood.

"Pepper you…" Rhodey started but Pepper's eyes flashed at him.

"Fury is right, Tony gave everything for the Avengers, I will not allow them to rip it apart and destroy that, I will not allow the man who put his shield through Tony to rip that apart. Tony is coming back, and he will find the Avengers here waiting for him, and until he does come back, and you are on your feet again, Rescue will be in the field," She tilted her head back.

"Tony built you a suit?" Rhodey asked amused.

"I still have enough Extremis in me yeah, he built me a suit. If you are happy working with me?" She looked at Carol who grinned and held her hand out.

"Welcome to the team,"

"I will point out that Pepper is equally lethal if you step into the ring with her politically and verbally, she will rip anyone to piece without cracking a nail," Rhodey grinned amusedly.

"That will definitely come in handy," Carol smirked.

"Great now, let's get to work," Fury nodded.


	4. Closer

Chapter Four

_Tony Stark was the Avengers_

_The headline might be a little on the nose, but new information has leaked out, a hacker known only as Mechanic2.0 managed to get into SI and pull out the financial information for the Avengers, and it turns out that Tony Stark was funding them._

_You can see a full break down of the Avengers financials below, but it is clear that Tony Stark spent over a million dollars on the Avengers. And not just on the technical things that you might imagine that is needed for something like the Avengers._

_No, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on them for clothing, food, multiple houses, cars, motorbikes, gaming consoles, shoes and so on, although it would probably but better to state that the Avengers spent hundreds of thousands of Tony Stark's dollars on these things._

_In the wake of the Civil War and revelations that are being made about the nature of the Avengers, this is yet another revelation of the way in which Mr Stark was taken advantage of by those that he trusted and who were his team._

* * *

Flashes of pain and sharp stabs of lancing heat went through him, he thought that he groaned but everything was hollow and too loud at the same time. He could feel agony and feel nothing, feel too much, and feel too little.

Everything.

Nothing.

Pain.

Loss.

Agony.

Betrayal.

He cried out, thrashing, it was too much.

A large hand pressed to his forehead, and he felt...better...easier. Soft words were murmured, he couldn't make out what was being said, he had no clue, but it helped.

He felt the hand sweeping over his forehead, pushing his hair back before he blacked out again.

* * *

"Ok, we have the Compound back up and running, and we have 2 new candidates already," Rhodey grinned.

"Two?" Pepper turned and then laughed. "Hello, boys,"

"Miss Potts," Peter waved brightly.

"Hey Tony's ex, you're way prettier than on TV," Harley said before looking around and whistling. "The mechanic did a good job here!"

"The Mec...you were the hacker," Pepper chuckled.

"That's me, no one gets away with hurting my Mechanic," Harley growled.

"You guys want to sign up?" Carol asked crossing her arms.

"We're going to sign up," Harley nodded.

"If that is ok," Peter grinned.

"I have told you, you need to grow a backbone!" Harley huffed at Peter.

"I have one, but there is nothing wrong with being polite!" Peter stammered.

"You're a superhero, or you want to be one, you have to stand your ground and demand your place, like the old man does!" Harley shook his head.

"Did he just refer to Tony as 'the old man'?" Pepper laughed.

"Fine! OK then. Miss Potts, Captain Danvers, we will be joining the Avengers now. Thank you very much for the opportunity!" Peter squeaked, before turning to look at Harley proudly.

"Seriously? How do you do interrogations?" Harley shook his head.

"Erm I haven't had to do that yet," Peter admitted rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh yeah no, I'm taking over your comma for that bit!" Harley shook his head.

"You're mean, wait till I tell Tony when he comes back!" Peter huffed.

He and Harley both tensed up before they set their jaws and didn't utter the words 'if he comes back' that hovered unspoken in the air around all of them.

"Right you two, I have something I need you to do," Pepper said breaking the heavy moment as best she could.

"What like our first mission?" Peter asked excitedly.

"Yup your first mission as Avengers," Carol nodded.

"If you're about to say something as lame as 'go unpack in your rooms, or have something to eat' I'm seriously going to be fu…"

"What is it you want us to do?" Peter smiled brightly removing his elbow from Harley's stomach, the taller blonde teen rubbing it with a pout.

"We need you to hack into the FBI and find out what they have on Hank and Hope Pym. Tony mentioned that you two are genius level, do you think you could also help FRIDAY track down the two of them, they use something called quantum particles," Pepper said.

"We will be taking over the old man's lab till he comes back, from there that is something that we can do," Harley nodded, throwing his bag over his shoulder. "FRIDAY, lead the way,"

"This way Master Keener, Boss told me that you and Peter were to have access, unrestricted if you ever came to visit here,"

"Do you think they can do it?" Rhodey asked watching the teens disappear as they argued about the best way to start their research. They reminded him of Tony, his heart traitorously clenched at that thought.

"Tony believed that they were going to be better than him one day, they can do it," Pepper nodded.

"Do you think this Hope will work with us, it is quite easy to dig up that Hank Pym does not like anything Stark or Stark related," Carol frowned.

"Oh he doesn't and I expect he will say no, however, I will be speaking to him, and I will remind him that Tony is not his father, and if he had not passed on his hatred to Tony, then Scott Land probably wouldn't have followed Captain America blindly as soon as he said he was going up again Tony Stark. His hatred poisoned Scott's perception, and not they are being hunted by the FBI as well," Pepper got a glint in her eye and Carol could see what Rhodey had meant about her being lethal.

Scott's statement before he was placed on house arrest had been telling, he had spoken freely about how Hank Pym had told him how bad the Stark's were, going to far as to refuse to go to the Avengers for help with the fact that his technology could have fallen into the hands of HYDRA, purely because of Tony. When Captain America had shown up and told Scott that Tony was doing the wrong thing and they needed to stop him, well Scott had had confirmed Hank's words.

Well, Pepper would have a few things to say about that attitude with Hank, and would greatly delight in pointing out that by hating a man he had never met, he had helped dig his own grave with the man he had chosen to wear the Ant-Man suit.

* * *

He was too hot.

Everything felt too sensitive and too much, his skin felt prickly.

His eyes were too heavy to open and he was aware of the sound of his own heartbeat thundering loudly. He sucked in a deep breath...and felt confused before doing it again.. Yeah, that was new.

The third breath made him groan out and shove at the blankets covering him, trying to reach his chest as it ached and burned, it felt fractured, it felt snapped and broken, like a glass being dropped.

That hand was back. It was covering his forehead again, comfort.

It was comforting him.

The voice was back as well, a calm rumble.

It was talking to him he realised.

It was soothing even though he couldn't tell what was being said, though this time the tone seemed to be chiding as a second hand gently pushed his own hands away from his chest and pulled the blanket back up.

Pushing him away seemed to take no effort, the guy was strong. But then Tony felt like a limp noodle so it could be that he was weak.

The voice became soothing again, words blurring together, but there.

He wasn't alone.

Not like he had been when he had passed out in that Bunker.

Not like he had been when he woke, freezing and knowing he needed to get out the suit.

He had been so alone when his broken body had dropped painfully down next to the suit, when he had been forced to crawl away from it when he realised the self destruct was about to go off.

He remembered every agonising second of crawling away, dragging his broken body away, his chest searing and cracking under his movement.

He hadn't made it far, definitely not far enough, he had felt his feet burning with the explosion of heat from the suit, his legs sizzling with more pain, more heat.

And he was alone, so alone. Not even FRIDAY was in his ear talking to him.

"...ny...ny...Tony...Tony it...ok...shhh...sa...re...safe," The voice was there.

And oh yes, he wasn't alone.

"...s...ok!"

He sank back into the welcoming emptiness of unconsciousness, knowing that he wasn't alone, his mystery voice was here.

* * *

"You think he has realised?" Rhodey asked Carol amused as he rolled over to her side.

"What that he wants a home?" Carol glanced over at him offering him a beer.

"Yup, and that he wants to stick around even...when Tony gets back," Rhodey nodded, turning his eyes to where Fury was talking with the boys enthusiastically.

"This is what he always wanted I think. Not SHIELD, but to create what he did want, he needed them. We wouldn't be here if he hadn't," Carol nodded.

"I never really thought about how lonely it must have been for him, especially after Coulson died," Rhodey hummed. "I think Tony did, Fury used to kick up a fuss that Tony would drop in on him at SHIELD and bend his ear about everything and nothing, I was always worried Tony was doing it just to piss him off. I think he knew he was lonely,"

"It would make sense why he is so worked up about Tony, and determined to have this all done and set up in his name, and ready for when he comes back," Carol smiled.

"If he comes back, we keep saying when, but it has been nearly three months now, we can't find any sign of him, we...we may need to face the fact and start planning for him...him not coming back," Rhodey managed to say even though his throat felt thick and clogged.

"You know I never met Tony, and I pretty much gave up trying to learn about him from the internet. But from those around him, from what you guys have told me, this guy seems way too hard-headed and determined to die, especially going out like that. From what you have told me, if there is one guy that can take nothing and make it into a whole load of something, it is Tony Stark. No sign of him doesn't mean not coming back, it could also mean that he is out there somewhere healing," Carol patted Rhodey on the shoulder. "Don't lose hope,"

"Honestly, those two," Fury huffed stomping passed.

"I have to admit, I am going to hold onto that hope purely because I want Tony to come back and see Grandpa Fury fussing over his boys," Rhodey laughed wetly.

* * *

"I've been thinking about what was said, about me needing a superhero name," Carol said at halfway through breakfast and they all perked up.

"Really?" Peter grinned.

"You boys are right, it is something that is more for the people than for me," Carol nodded.

"Brilliant!" Peter said enthusiastically and nearly hit Harley in the face with his excited gesture. The curly-haired blonde boy just rolled his eyes and grabbed Peter's hand, pinning it to the table with his own while the Spider-Boy grinned sheepishly at him.

"What are you going for?" Pepper asked, failing to hide her grin at the boys' antics.

"Captain Marvel," Carol said, and Fury snorted before he started laughing.

"Really?! Not Mar-Vell," He pronounced the separate words obnoxiously.

"Nope, think I will go for Marvel," Carol shrugged standing to go to the kettle. "Wait, oh yes wait a minute Mr Postman, wait Mr Postman," She sang making Fury choke and then laugh even harder.

"You two have a past we know nothing about," Rhodey snorted.

"Captain?" Pepper asked Carol as she came back smirking into her coffee cup.

"I think that I can show Rogers how it should be done," Carol said cooly.

"Burn!" Harley whistled.

"Wait, wait, can you say that again, exactly the same so I can film it!" Peter begged.

"No, because you two are due to school!" Carol snorted.

"Aww come on, we're Avengers, why do we have to go to school?!" Harley huffed.

"Because you are underage Avengers, which means we're responsible for you till the point that you come of age, and the only way your guardians allowed you both to stay here after you showed up here without warning them, was for us to promise to make sure you graduated. So butts, in car, now!" Fury waved them to the door grabbing the car keys.

"Tony would…"

"Tony would fly your butts to school in the suit, crash through your classroom ceiling and tie you to the seats," Pepper laughed.

"That...is very true," Harley groaned.

"I still haven't worked out how to turn off KAREN's school time protocol not to work during school hours unless it is an apocalypse, FRIDAY gives permission, or I am in danger," Peter huffed grabbing his bag.

"Boss gave me clear protocols on when I can allow KAREN to stand down from Spidey needs an education protocol Master Peter," FRIDAY chirped. "Have a good day at school,"

"You guys fucking suck," Harley grumbled.

"Language!" Pepper called back cheerfully.

"Have fun at school!" Rhodey added.

* * *

T'Challa was a King. He had fought for his throne. He had faced down the dark history of his families past, and he had conquered it.

He had faced threats and dangers as the Black Panther.

He had travelled to the land of the Ancestors and challenged them about the choices they made.

He had nearly died, and survived to carry on fighting.

He had stood in front of the UN and went against a thousand years of tradition to reveal Wakanda to the world, and he had faced the anger and accusations of the rest of the world for them having hidden, and hidden their technology till now.

But right at this moment, he was worried that he was about to break out into a nervous sweat.

"King T'Challa," Virginia Potts' eyes were flashing dangerously as pinned him like a bug through the video call. She looked even more intimidating considering she was wearing what was clearly a version of the Iron Man armour designed specifically for her.

"Miss Potts, and…" T'Challa looked to the woman at her side who looked equally unimpressed, blue eyes sharp, and her hands were...glowing?

"Captain Marvel," The woman said sharply.

"Captain Marvel, pleasure,"

"Are you looking for a list of more people that hurt Tony so you can harbour them?" A teen stomped into view, dodging out the way of the hand that tried to grab him, the owner of the hand stepping into view next and…

"Director Fury?!" T'Challa blinked.

"King T'Challa," Fury looked at him, as unimpressed as the rest.

"I am not looking for any list of the sort. We tried to capture the Rogues and bring them in as soon as we found out, but they managed to evade us. We are still trying to track them, they're somewhere in Europe," T'Challa said, a little too quickly.

"Are we supposed to be impressed by the fact that you tried to arrest the people you rescued in the first place, leaving Tony there to...to god knows what after he did nothing but help you?" The blonde teen snorted.

"And someone that your father had a lot of respect for," Pepper added. And wow, the rumours about her weren't wrong, she would go for the kill shot without blinking!

"I made a mistake, knowing that Mr Stark was in there and injured and I did nothing will always haunt me, I...I made the mistake because I was looking to make amends for my pursuit of Bucky Barnes, and I made things worse. I wished to offer my help in trying to locate Mr Stark, in any way that I can!" T'Challa said quickly.

"We want nothing from you you…" The teen gestured wildly as Fury covered his mouth to stop him from carrying on. He gripped the kid around the waist and physically carried him out, though not before the teen made a gesture with his fingers that gave no doubt as to what he thought of the King. T'Challa bristled angrily, at least until Miss Potts spoke.

"Tony left behind two teenage boys he has basically adopted and who love him, greatly,"

"He...he looks to Mr Stark as a father?" T'Challa felt numb.

"Yes," Miss Potts narrowed her eyes at him further.

"What is that I can do for you Miss Potts, Captain Marvel?" T'Challa asked.

"Do you still have Bucky Barnes?" Miss Potts asked tightly, for the first time looking uncomfortable.

"Yes...he is here, but he is back in Cryo and not a danger I promise," T'Challa was concerned about where this was going to go.

"Why is he back in cryo?" Captain Marvel frowned.

"The trigger words, we could not remove them, he was afraid and tired of what had been done to him. Bucky Barnes is not…"

"We know," Pepper waved her hand at him stopping him. "Colonel Rhodes has done extensive research into the Winter Soldier and Bucky Barnes, the data dump had a lot of information as to what HYDRA did to him over the years. We were looking for something that we could bring him down with but...Tony wouldn't want that,"

"Pardon?" T'Challa was completely thrown now.

"What was done to Barnes, was not his fault, being trapped in your own head, tortured, modified, used. That is something Tony understands. We looked the information over together and we made a decision. We will carry out what Tony would have done. We guessed that the trigger words may be causing problems for you, and we decided to offer the use of BARF if he was still with you," Pepper looked conflicted but determined.

"BARF? You would really allow us access to this to help him?" Shuri shoved him slightly to the side jumping into the screen view where she had been hovering and listening with Okoye.

"This is my sister Shuri, she is in charge of R&D here, and has been working on trying to help Sergeant Barnes," T'Challa introduced.

"Princess," Miss Potts bowed her head slightly. "And yes, we would be willing to allow you access to BARF as long as you sign an agreement that nothing will be copied of the technology and you will return it the moment that it is done. The system comes with an AI fitted JACOSTA, so we will know if you try anything but to use the system to treat Barnes," Miss Potts warned.

"That would be agreeable," Shuri nodded quickly.

"Very well, I shall meet you at your border with the system," Captain Marvel nodded.

"When can you be here?" Shuri asked already typing away at her tablet doing a million and one things. T'Challa felt a stab in his gut when Miss Potts smiled a little sadly as she watched his sister, clearly, she reminded the woman of Tony Stark a little.

"I will be there in about...an hour and a half," Captain Marvel shrugged.

"You are an eight-hour flight by jet from us," Shuri blinked.

"I fly fast, heading out now," Captain Marvel smirked before walking out of shot.

"'I fly fast' as in she won't be using a jet?" Shuri picked up quickly.

"You're in for a sight when she lands, she is enhanced," Miss Potts nodded. "When you wake Barnes up again will you tell him something please,"

"Of course Miss Potts," Shuri nodded.

"Tell him that Tony would not have blamed him for what happened if he were here. With all the information and knowing what Barnes had been through, he would not blame him if he knew that Barnes had killed his parents, because he would know that it was not Barnes that killed them, the fault lies with HYDRA and HYDRA alone. And he would know that Barnes was not in the right state of mind with what happened during the Civil War, the information on the trigger words is quite clear in the research as to what it does to Barnes' brain, scrambled eggs is not the word. He followed Stever Rogers because he trusted him, and that was the wrong choice. But Tony would not have held it against him. And while we are...angry is not the word, at what we have worked out happened in that bunker, we know Barnes is not at fault, for...whatever happened to Tony," Miss Potts said the words like they burned.

"You do not seem to fully agree with what you are offering here?" T'Challa asked and then resisted the urge to step back when Miss Pott's raised flashing eyes to him.

"I don't. But we spoke about it, at length, and this is what Tony have wanted," She answered sharply.

"As soon as White Wolf is awake and thinking clearly, I will ask for whatever information we can get about the Bunker Miss Potts," Shuri promised.

"That...would be appreciated," Miss Potts inclined her head.

"Thank you," Shuri said before stepping away.

"King T'Challa," Miss Potts said before cutting the feed before he could reply.

"I don't think she likes you very much," Okoye pointed out needlessly.

* * *

It was cold. Too cold. Biting. He was back in the Bunker? Was everything a dream? A hallucination as he was dying? The voice? The hands? Not real?

He shivered so hard it made his body scream, his injuries screaming at him for the movement, but he was so cold, it was too his bones.

He was dying wasn't he?

Here in the bunker with…

The hand was back, and something heavy was being laid over him, blankets, lots of them. The hand was feeling his forehead, the voice...the voice was there...it was...worried?

His brain was heavy, he couldn't think.

Was he in the bunker?

He didn't think so.

He was lying on something soft, not the dented concrete of the bunker. The blankets were soft, and they were starting to leach the cold from him.

He was still cold and shivering and...oh a fever, he had a fever.

The voice continued muttering to him, still no words, he couldn't make them out, but soothing anyway. His voice was keeping him safe. Helping.

The hand moved from his forehead to his cheek. Then they grasped his hands and rubbed them gently, warming them.

He wasn't dying.

He was healing.

* * *

_'But Tony would not have held it against him. And while we are...angry is not the word, at what we have worked out happened in that bunker, we know Barnes is not at fault, for...whatever happened to Tony'_

Bucky pressed play again and listened to Virginia Potts words again, listening to what she said. He couldn't believe it, it couldn't be true. But, even though she wasn't happy, she meant what she said.

Those who knew Tony Stark best thought that the man would forgive him?

After everything that he did?

How?

But would they reach out to him and help him unless they genuinely thought that this was something Tony Stark would have done for him?

"White Wolf?" Shuri looked up when he came to hover nervously by him.

"I want to speak to Miss Potts and the Avengers, I want to tell them everything that I can remember, to see if I can help," he said firmly.

"I will arrange it," She nodded.

He was relieved that she didn't ask if he was sure or second guess him. She just helped.

* * *

Something was being pressed to his lips, something hard with liquid in it. It tasted strange, something that he had never tasted before he thought as it was taken away again. But then, he had a fever, he could recognise that now, funky taste buds came with that.

He knew that from experience, after all, he had had a lot of fevers, came with the gig and with limited lung capacity, unfortunately. Something that his 'team' hadn't understood and still demanded things of him when he had been risking making his condition worse and indeed he had ended up fighting an infection from his lungs.

"You're talking out loud Tony," The voice said sounding a little amused and a little...something else. "I am angry on your behalf, it is not the first time you have talked out loud, this team of yours...I am angry at them,"

Did he know the voice? Was it someone that knew Tony and that was why he was angry? But no, everyone that knew Tony knew the Avengers, and they wouldn't choose Tony's side.

"You're not helping calm me down Tony," The voice said, chuckling despite his words and that deliciously cool liquid was back. "And you would be surprised at how many people choose your side. I have told you before but I am not sure how much you are remembering, the earth are raising their voices and crying out on your behalf against your old team,"

They were? That was…

"Tony?!" The voice sounded panicked now and Tony realised why when a thumb brushed a tear from his eye.

"...hurts…" He managed to croak out.

The voice sucked in a deep breath before letting out a relieved, happy laugh. That hand stroked his cheek gently, kindly, soothing him. "I know it does, betrayal always cuts deep, especially by those we trust. I...I trusted and believed what I was told, and I found that I had been wrong about trusting them, giving so much to them. But you have people who care about you Tony, people who are waiting for you to come home to them, so you need to keep fighting,"

"Thank you," Tony rasped and with what felt like ridiculous effort managed to crack his eyes open and look up at the face gazing down at him concerned. "I...like your...eyes,"

"Thank you," The voice laughed happily. "Here, drink a little more,"

* * *

"Sergeant Barnes," Fury nodded tightly at him. Miss Potts, Fury, Captain Marvel and James Rhodes were all there, and Miss Potts and James Rhodes looked like they would rather chew their own arms off than be here, but weren't going to be anywhere else.

"James if you don't mind. I...reference to who I used to be is...distressing to me," James requested.

"Who you used to be?" Fury tilted his head.

"I am not Bucky Barmes and don't wish to step into a dead man's shoes and claim his life. And I am not the Asset or Winter Soldier as I was called, and that if definitely not an identity I wish to keep. James...he has never existed and gives me a chance to work out who I am," James explained with a frown.

"That sounds fair," Miss Potts nodded, and something relaxed in her a little. It seemed that honesty was the right way to go with these people.

"What can you tell us about the bunker S...James?" Captain Marvel asked.

"Well, it was a trap. Zemo lured us there to break up the Avengers, he was using me as the lynchpin and nothing else, he lured me, Steve and Tony Stark there for one reason only…" James started explaining and the events of that day came together even more.


	5. Home

Chapter Five

Tony limped around his room, grimacing and grunting every now and then. But damn it he couldn't spend much longer just lying in bed staring at the ceiling. He carefully tugged his blanket more around his shoulders as it started shifting and shuffled a few more steps as a yawn broke free.

"You are annoyingly stubborn," The amused tone had him turning slowly with a small smile for his saviour.

"I have been told that before," Tony croaked.

"You were flat out and moving nowhere when I left you, and I thought I told you to call for me if you needed me,"

"I didn't want to disturb you, Hero, you need the sleep, you have been fussing over me too much," Tony said even as he was herded back to the bed gently.

"That is because you have needed fussing," His Hero snorted.

"You're tired," Tony accused even as he sat down on the bed with relief.

"I am fine Tony," His Hero gave a soft smile, gently squeezing Tony's hand. "You're healing well, it won't be too long now and you will be able to walk around and check things out,"

"I'm putting you out, after you have done all this for me, you saved my life," Tony huffed looking away and out the window at the stars surrounding them.

"You really make me want to do terrible things to those morons," Hero sighed, shaking his head getting Tony's attention back to him.

"Huh?" he frowned.

"You're not putting me out, you're healing, and I chose to bring you here and heal you. You deserve to be cared for Tony," Hero shook his head, an annoyed scowl on his face. Annoyed at the Avengers, not at him.

"I…" Tony stared into the green eyes of Hero blankly and completely lost.

"Yeah, I'm going to kill them once you're better," Hero shook his head dropping back against the wall as he sat on the bed next to Tony.

"Come now Bright Eyes, it's not that bad," Tony said purposefully lightly. In response, his Hero grumbled lowly to himself.

"I am going to get us breakfast, if you get up before I get back I shall tie you down!" His hero warned standing.

"Kinky," Tony called and chuckled at the grumbling he received in return.

* * *

_Do the Rogues have something to do with Tony Stark's disappearance?_

_It has been three months now since Tony Stark disappeared, and the world is losing hope that they will see their hero in red and gold again. The world has realised how much Tonk Stark did for them, and the public is speaking out about how loved he is, it is clear how many fans that both Tony Stark and Iron Man have._

_Across the world shrines have been set up in honour of the man, prayers are being said in hundreds of languages and in multiple religions for the hero who saved the world. Everyone hoping that their actions can help the man who helped them so much._

_Heroes have stepped into the gap that he has left, but it is clear that it is in his name, and they have also made it clear that they are holding down the fort, clearly expecting him to come back. The few statements that we have had from SI has made it clear that they have not given up hope on Tony Stark returning to us._

_But all of a sudden the hunt for Captain America, Black Widow, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye has been stepped up after the Rogues caused multiple injuries in an attack in France, harming multiple officers who tried to apprehend them. Unfortunately, there were also seven deaths caused by the powers of the Scarlet Witch, witnesses have reported._

_This sad, and needless attack, has raised voices against the Rogues, and the question is being asked even louder, did they do something to Tony Stark? If this is how they react to unknown officers merely trying to do their job, what would they do to a team member who was trying to do the right thing and apprehend them?_

_James Rhodes, AKA War Machine and best friend to Tony Stark, was reported to have said that Tony Stark went after the Rogues because he wanted to try and keep things under control, and hoped that he would be able to talk to them and help them in their situation, to try and ensure that they weren't hurt, and that they came out of the situation as best they could considering what had already happened._

_It appears as though this kindness was likely spat upon by those he called friends._

_And the question is still asked._

_What happened to Tony Stark?_

* * *

"Here we go," His Hero said placing Tony's plate down onto the bed next to him.

"You didn't hand it to me," Tony blinked surprised.

"You don't like being handed things," His hero shrugged, taking the chair near the bed with his own plate.

"How do you know that?" Tony frowned.

"I have been watching over the earth for fifteen years, including getting to know what I can about its heroes, you coming forward meant that it was easier for me to help people. Dodging SHIELD was becoming an annoyance, you were a welcome help and distraction, no matter how unintentional it was. I read that you do not like being handed things," His hero shrugged.

"I...I had a bad experience when I was younger, with my father, it has left me with a little bit of an irrational fear of being handed things," Tony admitted softly, picking up his plate and poking at the food.

"You're meant to eat that, not play with it,"

"Yes Mother Hen," Tony jibed but took a bite anyway. He was feeling better and better, but he still needed to eat to heal.

"Better," His hero smiled. "You will be well enough to head back soon," He nodded out the window to where the earth was slowly spinning below them.

"What will you do?" Tony asked looking into those fascinating eyes.

"I will carry on as I have been," His Hero shrugged with a tight smile.

"That sounds lonely," Tony said staring down into his food. "You could come back with me,"

"I don't know if that would be the right thing to do," His Hero frowned, turning to look out the window when Tony looked up at him. "You don't know what I have done,"

"So tell me?" Tony offered.

"I am not sure I could have you look at me with hate," Hands clenched and the normal zen-like aura around his Hero faded, it was replaced with something agitated and hurt, something he had been carrying for a long time.

"Trust me. You saved my life, the least that I can do is hear you out. And the man that I have gotten to know here does not seem like a bad man,"

"I am not the man that I once was," His Hero said setting his nearly finished plate to the side.

"If anyone can say that they won't judge harshly on past actions it is me," Tony pushed a little harder.

"My people, they...they were powerful and arrogant. They desired to control as much as they could, and anyone who stood in their way, they destroyed. I believed the propaganda that I grew up on, saying that we were making the galaxy a better place, that we were the good guys and wanted the best for everyone, and that anyone that opposed us, therefore had to be the bad guys. I bought into it, I signed up for it and I followed without question, followed without hesitation. The blood of innocents who dared to say no are on my hands,"

Tony sat quietly watching as His Hero stood and made his way to the window, staring out.

"It was here that I had my eyes opened, on Earth. Someone that I cared greatly for, someone who was like my little sister, she opened my eyes. And she hates me for what she saw. And she was right to, I dragged her into it, I lied to her because I was told it was the right thing to do, I fought against her because I was told it was the right thing to do,"

"What did you do after?" Tony asked getting to his feet with a grunt of pain and came to stand next to his Hero.

"What?" Bright green eyes turned to him confused.

"After you found out, what did you do?" Tony asked more gently this time, reaching out cautiously and taking that hand that had provided him so much comfort in his, hoping that he could provide the same comfort back.

"I was aimed back at my home planet, she sent me back to give a warning. I managed to redirect it to a neighbouring planet, one with enough power to challenge my people. I...I betrayed all my training and all my laws and told them everything, gave them every single bit of information that I had in my head, and I found the enemy of my people and made sure that they dug out every single bit of information that they had hidden deep in my mind," His Hero's hand tightened around his, the anger clear in his voice.

Four months ago he was sure that that grip would have broken his hand, and probably his wrist. Now, though he was still annoyingly weak, he was able to squeeze back.

"My planet has been put under control, new laws and rules by the Nova Corps to protect the Galaxy from them. A lot have gone into uproar, furious that someone else dares to tell them what to do," His hero laughed bitterly.

"And how many lives have you saved by doing that?" Tony asked.

"It doesn't undo what I have done, the lives I have taken!"

"No it doesn't does it," Tony hummed staring at the beautiful image of the Earth beneath them.

"Tony?" The anger and self-hatred in his rescuer retreated in the face of his confusion.

"You must know that I was called the Merchant Of Death on Earth. My weapons have killed who knows how many thousands of people, and I carried on designing them happily and cheerfully, making money off of them and enjoying them. When I was kidnapped, it was by people that my father's business partner Obadiah Stance had been selling weapons to under the table, they were supposed to kill me for him, instead, they took me,"

"Tony, you don't have to tell me this," His Hero frowned, his face concerned now, and god but Tony was falling in love with this man.

"I think you need to hear it, you have been hiding up here for long enough, punishing yourself," Tony shook his head. "I had my eyes opened to what had been happening. Thousands of my weapons were sitting there, piled up for use, weapons that I had designed for the American government to stop men like that from hurting others. Instead, I found out that my weapons had been used to hurt, torture and kill civilians, ruin villages and towns. My life's work was death,"

"But, you changed," His Hero said slowly, and of course he was a clever man, he knew what Tony was getting at with this.

"Yes, I could have escaped, gone back, and carried on, or made noise about being more careful. I could have even started making weapons again once Stane was dead, cleaning up the leak, but carried on. But I didn't I changed, SI will be something of hope when I die, not to be remembered for death. And I created Iron Man, I would protect the world that I helped hurt. Even though others tell me that I have redeemed my name, cleaned my hands of the blood on them, that had been caused by my naivety and trust. Doesn't make them feel clean though, does it," Tony turned to look into those bright, alien green eyes.

"No, it doesn't," Yon-Rogg looked down at their joined hands.

"You can be of more help down there, with me," Tony said before looking up at his rescuer. "Why did you save me?"

"I was on Earth, I was dealing with the issue in Turkey knowing that you and the Avengers would be busy when I caught wind of what was going on. I hacked into the communications of Rogers and managed to track him to the Bunker. I arrived and found you lying there unconscious,"

"That is how, not why," Tony smirked when Yon-Rogg looked at him.

"Must you always be so difficult?" Yon-Rogg sighed.

"Always,"

"You didn't deserve to die like that, you didn't deserve to be betrayed and left to die in the pool of your own blood, I wouldn't let that happen when you have done so much, helped so many people, it wasn't right," Yon-Rogg scowled, though it was more to himself than anything else, mainly because he knew what Tony was going to say next.

"You don't deserve this either, isolated out here, with no one to watch your back. You're punishing yourself," Tony squeezed when Yon-Rogg went to flinch back. "You don't deserve this, you don't deserve to be punished like this. You might as well be in prison. Make a difference, but make a difference down there, with people to watch your back,"

"With you to watch my back?" Yon-Rogg tilted his head.

"You saved my life, I am not going to let you just walk away and leave you behind now. Sorry," Tony shrugged unapologetically.

"You have a bad habit for adopting strays I have heard," Yon-Rogg huffed.

"It is a bad habit, they all turn out to be good people that will change the world though," Tony hummed before going for the kill. "Besides, going back down there I am going to have to deal with the others and the consequences of...what did you say they were calling it? The Civil War?"

"That is not playing fair," Yon-Rogg glared slightly.

"I know, but if you were a bad person than you would not be emotionally manipulated into worrying about me,"

"At least you admit you are manipulating me," Yon-Rogg snorted.

"Of course I am, I am worried about you floating up here by yourself. Now I know that you're here, I can't just leave you here to punish yourself," Tony sighed, his brown eyes boring into bright green.

"Vers...Carol is down there Tony," Yon-Rogg said lowly.

"Your little sister?" Tony guessed.

"Yes. She was human. A Kree, like me, went to Earth to help those that we had been persecuting, she managed to wiggle free of the iron grip that our planet had by making it sound like it was a mission to help our people, she told enough truths that she would be able to slip through, an energy source that would break the code for lightspeed. She wanted to help the Skrull escape the genocide that the Kree were enacting upon them because they refused our rule. She met Carol on Earth. As far as I can tell, they were great friends. Mar-Vell got discovered though, I am not even sure how, though she must have been betrayed by someone. And the Kree sent me and another to get the technology back. Minn-Erva killed Mar-Vell, but Carol shot the energy source as Mar-Vell had been trying to do, to stop us getting it. It exploded and the source went into her, she survived. I took her back to Kree, I told them that we could make her a weapon, that she would be powerful and that she could help us. We turned her half Kree," Yon-Rogg paused and met Tony's eyes concerned.

Smiling Tony squeezed the hand that was still in his, nodding to show that he was ok. "Why did you really save her?" He asked.

"She was...fearless. She knew nothing about all this before, she had literally had it dropped on her there and then. But she stood there, met our eyes and took the shot anyway, loyalty and bravery like that, I couldn't just let her be killed,"

"So she became Kree,"

"Yes, they wiped her memories, and she became my responsibility. I tried to keep her safe, make her a good Kree, stop her from poking around and looking too deep so that the Intelligence would leave her alone and she would live. She broke out though," Yon-Rogg smiled proudly. "She saw the lies for what they were, she got her memories back, and she fought, she held her shoulders high even though her world had been turned upside down, and she said no, and she made it right. You remind me of her,"

"I hope you don't think of me as your little sister," Tony gasped.

"No, and I certainly do not see you as my little brother either," Yon-Rogg smiled amusedly, a hint of something in his eyes before sadness took over again. "She was..hurt and angry at me. I had lied to her and hid things, I led her to wrong choices and conclusions. She thinks I knew about...everything. I found out only when Ronan, a powerful general of my army showed up and planned to release weapons that would destroy half the planet, a planet that at that point had no protections and posed no threat. When I tried to talk him out of it, to stop him, he laughed and told me I was a naive fool, that that was who the Kree were. That he was going to happily and uncaringly going to wipe out half a planet simply because they were unknowingly housing a few Skrull who were just trying to find their families and somewhere safe for them to live,"

"So, we go back, we talk to her and tell her what really happened. I think the fact that you are here and have been orbiting the planet for 15 years, making visits when there has been trouble, to help, and the fact that you saved my life, I think that will be enough to earn you the right to be listened to. And I won't let anything happen to you," Tony promised.

"What if she doesn't believe me," Yon-Rogg frowned.

"From what you have said, you probably meant as much to her as she did to you, otherwise she would not have been hurt. And you won't know unless you try,"

"That is a good point. You should be able to travel in a week,"

"You will come with me?" Tony brightened.

"I don't trust you to look after yourself," Yon-Rogg sniffed arrogantly.

"There is the spirit!" Tony laughed happily.

* * *

"I like you," Janet Van Dyne laughed looking at Pepper who allowed herself a smirk.

"I…."

"From what she said, really you are a little to blame for the choices Scott made. And really, judging the son by the father, I thought better of you Hank!" Janet scolded.

"I…"

"Tony also proved multiple times that wasn't Howard, starting by closing the weapons department down. Do you really think Howard would have lost the millions of dollars that cost, it was only Tony's brains and determination that saved thousands of people their jobs," Pepper raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him.

"I…"

"Hush dear, the adults are talking," Janet smirked.

"So, you would be willing to help us clear the Pym and Van Dyne name of the FBI charges if we help you?" Hope asked sharply.

"No," Pepper shook her head.

"So, our daughter counts as an adult but I don't," Hank huffed but looked impressed when Pepper took her cup of coffee off a tray carted over by one of their dog-sized ants with barely a blink. But then she did work for Tony Stark.

"No?" Janet asked.

"No, we will help you get clear of the FBI charges anyway, cleaning up messes left behind by Captain America and his group is something that Tony was well versed in doing, and something that does not seem to be stopping even now," Pepper sighed.

"We saw the attack in Paris," Janet nodded.

"I am just glad that Scott at least had the sense to hand himself in and throw himself at the mercy of the Accords," Hope sighed.

"And I am guessing that you have something to do with the lenience that he received?" Hank looked at Pepper, and then shot his wife and daughter a look that said 'see I can be an adult'.

"He was the only one truly not at fault there, Rogers used his name and fame to his advantage, who doesn't believe Captain America has to be fighting for the right thing when you grew up on his stories," Pepper shrugged.

"Who didn't, it seems that the world is seeing a different side to the hero," Janet hummed.

"You have sent the Maria Stark Foundation in to help Paris I noticed," Hope said.

"Like I said, cleaning up his messes," Pepper sneered a little.

"And Tony Stark?" Janet asked gently.

"We just don't know," Pepper admitted, her well-practised mask slipping for a second. "But until we have proof otherwise, we're expecting him back,"

"I know something about that," Hank smiled a little at Janet who smiled right back at him and took his hand.

"So, you're going to help us with the FBI anyway, what would you want from us?" Hank grunted.

"Well, Ant-Man and the Wasp to help for call outs, we are a little understaffed currently, we only have me, War Machine, Captain Marvel, Vision and an underage kid who is on Apocalypse only missions when he isn't protecting his neighbourhood. The extra help would be appreciated, and the extra brains,"

"Hank and I?" Janet asked.

"You had a terrible experience with SHIELD and with Howard, that we understand completely, just as we did with the Avengers and Rogers, but we are not going to let them and their stupidity rip apart everything that Tony worked so hard to build, and we are not going to allow them to leave the world without the help and protection that the Avengers stood for. We have ripped it apart piece by piece and we are rebuilding, and we would like to offer you a place to do things as they should have been done the first time," Pepper looked directly at Hank.

"That sounds, impressive,"

"If...if Tony doesn't come back, his memory and legacy will not be the Civil War and the Avengers ripping themselves apart. It is going to be this, the world protected the way he always dreamt it, the way that he fought for ten years to achieve. We all have that drive behind us, and we will make sure that the Avengers are the heroes that the world deserves,"

"Well, I am in," Hope grinned.

"Hope! We should talk…"

"Dad you can sign on our not if you want, but I am in," Hope nodded holding her hand out to Pepper.

"Me too," Janet agreed holding her hand out for Pepper to shake next.

"Janet we should…"

"You don't have to sign up if you don't want to," Janet smirked.

"Well, I am not letting you have all the fun," Hank grumbled. "You're very impressive Miss Potts,"

"Thank you," Pepper smirked. "By the way, when you come to take the tour of the Compound, please bring some of the ants, we have two teenage boys there who would absolutely love them," She added with a grin.

"Well, if it would be ok with yourself, until the FBI are all sorted out, it would probably make more sense just to move the house onto the Compound grounds," Hope shrugged.

"Move...the house?" Pepper blinked.

"The house shrinks," Hank huffed.

"Well...that is handy!" Pepper grinned.

* * *

"Oops," Tony grinned at Yon-Rogg sheepishly looking down at the broken hammer in his hands.

"I see that you're feeling better," Yon-Rogg laughed.

"I was just...tinkering," Tony smiled innocently at him.

"You mean the damaged section of my ship was starting to become an affront to your senses?" Yon-Rogg teased sitting next to Tony, taking the hammer back and straightening the hammer back out.

"It is so...crap, I mean really this patchworking is just an insult to designs!" Tony whined.

"I wasn't trained in mechanics, and I don't have a genius' brain. My highly trained and honed skills lie elsewhere," Yon-Rogg raised an eyebrow at him.

"Along with your humility," Tony snorted, already elbow-deep in the wires again now that he sort of had permission. "You need an AI on this thing,"

"Like your FRIDAY?" Yon-Rogg asked tilting his head.

"Exactly, they would make things run smoother, and they would be able to keep eyes on the ship to let you know if something is in need of repair. I could get it done for you, and set the customs for however you want, if you give me enough data I could have them speak in Kree," Tony shrugged yanking several wires clean out and throwing them away.

"Why go to all that trouble if I am coming back with you?" Yon-Rogg asked curiously.

"She is still your ship, and she has been your home for 15 years. We can get her ship shape and at her best," Tony said as he rummaged around in the depth of the ship. "I have the perfect place for you to park her on the Compound where she will be safe,"

"You don't have to do all this you know Tony," Yon-Rogg touched the suddenly tense back.

"Do what?" Tony asked tersely.

"Tony, you have been awake for a month now, I have gotten to know you properly, you don't have to do things for me to keep me around. I am coming with you Tony, if nothing else to watch your back," Yon-Roff snorted.

"I knew you have been looking at my butt," Tony smirked over his shoulder.

"It is a fine thing to behold," Yon-Rogg smirked when Tony actually blushed and buried himself into the ship again, conveniently giving his green eyes the perfect angle to look at said arse again.

"I like doing things for people," Tony admitted.

"Just don't push yourself. You're still healing. Two more days and we can travel," Yon-Rogg touched his back again. "I think I have something around here with Kree, it would be...nice hearing my home tongue again,"

"Get hunting for my bright eyes," Tony smiled happily before ripping out ten more things that Yon-Rogg was sure the ship surely needed?!

* * *

"This is bad," Natasha hissed.

"Bad, it is beyond bad!" Clint hissed back. "We are so far beyond bad right now, we can't even see bad, I wish that this could be described as bad!"

"We need to hand ourselves in," Steve's shoulders slumped.

"What... no, we…" Clint shook his head.

"Steve is right. When we were just running, when we weren't hurting anyone, it was one thing. But people have been hurt, people have died!" Sam dropped into a seat.

"We need to do the right thing, and this, this isn't right anymore, and we all know it," Steve sighed.

"Wanda was the one to hurt all of them," Natasha said quietly, and none of them could still really believe what had happened.

They had known that she was not doing well with their life on the run, the way that they were being viewed by the public. She had hated every single piece of news, every single bit of information about Tony Stark and the way the world was reacting to his absence. How they were reacting to them.

But this had come out of the left field.

She had exploded with rage when they had been laughed at and called the Rogues when Steve had tried to remind the officers that they were that Avengers and meant no one any harm.

She had proven them wrong. They had barely been able to react before she had used her powers to throw the men around like rag dolls, including throwing seven of them out the windows of the 15th story flat block they had been staying.

They knew this was the writing on the wall for them now.

"What do we do with Wanda?" Natasha asked.

"We go now while she is out...wherever she goes, we hand ourselves in and tell them where she is, and make sure that they know how dangerous she is," Sam said firmly.

"I don't want to go to prison," Clint frowned at his hands.

"Things will just be worse and worse for us if we carry on running. All we can do is throw ourselves at their mercy, and hope that they think they need us," Natasha said emptily.

"We...we thought that what we were doing was the right thing, and that is why we did it, but we have been shown by the world that it isn't the right thing. We fought against the Accords because we thought that they weren't what was right for the world, but the world has made it clear that it is what they want, what right do we continue to have, standing firm and telling them they're wrong, to keep fighting. Even the enhanced are signing up left, right and centre for it, because they believe it gives them rights that they have never had before," Sam said firmly.

"We all heard the statement Xavier gave, even the brotherhood are shifting a little, the terms are...fair for the enhanced community," Steve sighed.

"We were wrong. And we are wrong to keep running, especially when it means that people are getting hurt, are getting KILLED because of it. As though Stark wasn't enough, now these officers, no! Enough is enough!" Sam shook his head standing and leaving the room.

* * *

"Can you believe this? I can't believe that they have actually done this!" Pepper stared at the paper stunned, the image of the Rogues quite clear on the front page.

"The internet is going mad, I think that they have broken the Internet," Harley said flicking through ten different holo images at the same time, all of them showing the headlines from across the world.

"There is still one missing," Captain Marvel pointed out.

"The witch is…"

"I have just received a signal that a craft is landing in the Compound," FRIDAY interrupted them, but all their heads snapped up at the tone of her voice, it was...quivering.

"FRIDAY?" Fury frowned.

"The access code used was the Boss'," FRIDAY said.

There was silence for seconds, though each person around the table was sure that everyone should surely be able to hear their hearts thundering. And then as one, they scrambled to the door, throwing things out their way, Peter webbing his way over their heads with Vision flying alongside him. Rhodey was clinging to the arms of his wheelchair for dear life as Fury performed gravity-defying driving with him.

They burst out into the Compound grounds in time to see a clearly alien craft landing smoothly.

"That is Kree design," Carol said tensely, her eyes flashing over the craft.

"What?" Fury turned to frown at her.

"That is Kree,"

"What the…"

"When the hell did someone build a house on the Compound?!" A familiar voice asked sounding confused, and everything else was forgotten as they all turned to see Tony exiting the craft.

"DAD!" Harley and Peter shouted, and the two of them were wrapped around Tony in seconds, the man stumbling for a second, wide-eyed at what they had called him. But then he realised that both of them were sobbing against his shoulders and clinging onto him for dear life.

"Shhhh hey, shhh, I am fine, I am absolutely fine kids, it's ok," Tony soothed them, wrapping them tightly in his arms.

"It's been three months, we thought…." Harley managed to say, but he kept himself buried in Tony's shoulder, his hands fisting his top.

"I'm sorry it was so long. I wasn't in the best condition, it took a while for me to heal enough to be able to move," Tony explained gently running his fingers through their hair.

"What happened Tony?!" Pepper managed to get out before she descended upon them as well, squashing Peter as she too wrapped her arms around him and squeezed.

"I was rescued," Tony laughed hugging her back.

"Tones!" Rhodey wheeled himself right into the middle of them and wrapped his arms around Tony's waist and hugged him firmly.

"You damn brat!" Fury growled before squashing Harley even further against the returned man as he added himself to the mix.

"I have missed you," Vision floated down behind Tony and hugged him from the back.

The Compound in the background was performing a massive light show, every light in the place flashing and flickering, ACDC was blasting from the speakers in FRIDAY's delight.

"Impossible!" Carol breathed, and everyone looked up confused to see an ash blond man with glowing green eyes stepping down from the ship.

"Yon-Rogg saved my life," Tony said firmly, gently squeezing everyone and touching them before shaking them loose seeing the expression on Carol's face.

Everyone stepped forward confusedly when Carol's powers burst to life and she rushed at the man that had apparently saved Tony, Yon-Rogg straightened his back and readied himself to take the attack aimed at him.

And then everyone stared in shock as Tony managed to deflect her punch, with his own bare hands.

"I am guessing you're Carol," Tony smiled at her as she stared stunned at him.

"What just happened?" Pepper asked confused.

"What are you doing here?!" Carol hissed.

"He has been protecting Earth for the last 15 years, after he made right what he had done up there. He has been protecting it because it is where you're from, and he knew you couldn't be here to protect it yourself," Tony raised his hands calmingly.

"What?" Carol blinked.

"Tony.." Yon-Rogg huffed.

"What, it was pretty obvious why you chose Earth for your one-man crusade," Tony grinned over his shoulder.

"Are we not addressing the fact that Tony just managed to deflect Captain Marvel's punch with his bare hands?" Rhodey asked cheerfully.

"Marvel?" Yon-Rogg grinned. "She would have liked that,"

"Daddy got himself superpowers!" Harley crowed, throwing himself back on Tony, Peter a second behind.

"Tony also should be taking it easy, not deflecting punches, I could have handled it!" Yon-Rogg scolded, his mind catching up with him after the shock of seeing Carol again.

"Oh yes Mother Hen I know, but still wasn't happening," Tony huffed even as he combed his fingers through his boys' hair.

"You are recovering! I agreed to allow you to travel early because you promised to take it easy!"

"I am taking it easy!"

"Take it easy in terms of a normal person, not you! That was the agreement, you said those exact words!"

"I am perfectly fine and I will sit with my feet up for the next hour if it will stop you huffing at me like a mother dragon,"

"I will show you mother dragon!"

"So, you going to tell us what happened or are you two going to carry on your old married couple routine?!" Fury barked.

"Gramps has been worried," Harley muttered.

"Gramps?!" Tony choked.

"Harley started it," Peter grinned.

"Why am I not shocked," Tony ruffled Harley's curls, before starting to lead the way towards the Compound, glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Yon-Rogg followed. "Explanations I think,"

"I can listen to an explanation," Carol nodded and Yon-Rogg's shoulders relaxed a little.

"First explanation though, seriously who built a house in the Compound?!" Tony whined, and his friends and family laughed, slightly hysterically, around him as they realised...they had Tony back.


	6. Calm and Home

Chapter Six

Yon-Rogg smiled fondly as he watched Tony fuss over the two young boys who had to be Harley and Peter. The two of them hadn't let Tony go since attaching themselves for the second time, and they didn't seem to be going anywhere soon.

Not that Tony minded, he was reaching out for them and touching them as much as he could, running his fingers through their hair, rubbing their backs, his eyes kept straying to them as though to make sure that they were still there.

He was happy to note that Tony was doing as he had promised and had sat down to rest up, really deflecting a punch like that from Carol was not taking it easy and he was still not happy about it, Tony was still healing.

"Stop brooding I am sitting," Tony huffed catching the expression on his face. Yon-Rogg just scowled a little more and raised his eyebrow at Tony.

"You wouldn't have to be sitting if you did as you were told," he responded tartly.

"I make a point of not always doing what I am told," Tony sniffed.

"Don't I know it!" Yon-Rogg huffed dropping down onto the sofa beside Peter who took his eyes from Tony to look at him wide-eyed, and Yon-Rogg could just see the thousand and one questions building in the kid's brain.

"You want to explain who your husband is?" Fury interrupted. And then blinked when Tony's cheeks started burning red. Pepper and Rhodey exchanged looks before turning to focus a little more on Tony's rescuer rather than Tony.

"I would be interested in this explanation," Carol said tightly from where she was standing in the doorway, arms crossed and body language defensive.

Tony reached around Peter and took Yon-Rogg's hand, squeezing it comfortingly, and then rolling his eyes at Harley when his oldest adopted kid leant forward to look at the joined hands pointedly.

"Shush you," Tony scolded.

"Pft you wish Old Man," Harley huffed.

"You know that would be less threatening if you weren't trying to burrow your way into me right?" Tony laughed tugged Harley closer when he made mock protests to get away.

"Alien guy, that rescued you?" Fury sighed put upon, pinching his nose.

"Alright gramps, keep your eyepatch on," Tony smirked.

"Urgh!"

"I picked up the information of what was going on with Tony and the - Rogues I think they're being called? I was in Turkey at the time…"

"You're the one that dealt with the enhanced in Turkey?" Fury narrowed his eyes.

"Yes," Yon-Rogg nodded.

"Huh," Fury hummed sitting back and suddenly looking more calculating.

"So, Turkey?" Pepper pressed.

"Are they always like this?" Yon-Rogg looked to Tony a little wide-eyed.

"Yeah pretty much," Peter answered instead.

"Right," Yon-Rogg chuckled, something that was impossible not to do when faced with those big brown eyes that reminded him of Tony's. "So, I was in Turkey, caught wind of what was going on and decided to risk going to find out what was happening. I managed to hack into Roger's transmission and heard him saying something about multiple Winter Soldiers. I figured that it would be all hands to deck, and it was worth risking my identity so I headed over. When I got there Tony...was in a bad state," He looked to the two teens who were now deathly still.

"We saw the Bunker," Pepper nodded.

"I was dying," Tony said simply holding the boys closer to himself. "Between what Rogers and Barnes had done and the explosion of the suit, it wasn't pretty,"

"I couldn't get him to human medics in time, just moving him was going to make things worse. But I could transport him to my ship which was waiting in orbit. I managed to get him back there and conscious enough to give him his options, limited though they were,"

"Options?" Carol frowned.

"I could die, human, become some sort of cyborg, or have a blood transfusion…."

"No!" Carol stepped forward and opened her mouth, only to stop when Tony held his hand up, eyes flashing.

"I appreciate that this is going to bring up some bad memories for you, but please this is quite difficult to tell, so if you could let us get this out," Tony said softly.

"Sorry," Carol frowned stepping back and nodding.

"Yon-Rogg, he offered me the three choices that he had available to him, there was only so much that he could do, especially with the state that I was in. I wasn't ready to die, and the Cyborg option would have meant that….everything was different, including the fact that I would probably never fly the armour again. So, the blood transfusion option was the only one that seemed to be the option. He transferred Kree blood into me, to make me strong, to make me heal faster, and with the Kree blood in me, the medical equipment on the ship could heal me better and faster as they are set to Kree biology,"

"Tony is half human, half Kree now. Even with the faster healing and his new biology, he was still unconscious for two months,"

"What!" Carol hissed through her teeth.

"It was that bad yes," Yon-Rogg nodded. "It always takes a little while for the transformation to happen, and for the body to adjust to it. Once Tony was awake, he was still healing, and learning his new biology and makeup, including his new strength,"

"Strength?" Harley grinned.

"Kree are stronger, physically, they're faster, heal quicker," Tony nodded.

"Which is how you managed to deflect Carol's punch," Pepper nodded.

"Which he…"

"Oh, Pepper did you have to start him again!" Tony whined as Yon-Rogg huffed at being interrupted.

"You're meant to be healing!"

"I am healing, look at me, sitting here healing," Tony waved to himself.

"Time out!" Fury called. "So, you're now half-human, half Kree? Like Carol?"

"Yes, except obviously without the tesseract power source powers inside of me," Tony nodded.

"You know of the tesseract?" Carol frowned.

"More than we would like to know to be honest," Rhodey huffed.

"That is where your powers came from?" Harley frowned a little.

"A Kree scientist managed to harness some of the power of the tesseract into making it an energy source that could be the breakthrough in lightspeed technology, but Carol shot the engine to stop it getting into the wrong hands, and the harnessed energy decided to go into her instead," Tony explained.

"Wow, the fusion of tesseract energy to human DNA, that is…" Peter looked as though he was a thousand miles away.

"The hands I was trying to keep it out of was his! He killed Mar-Vell," Carol hissed.

"No, Minn-Erva killed Mar-Vell, I saw the video of it myself," Tony said when it was clear Yon-Rogg was not going to.

"I was there though," Yon-Rogg shrugged.

"And he saved your life," Tony growled.

"No, he stole me!" Carol shook her head.

"You wouldn't have survived the merging of Tesseract energy to human DNA if you had not had the Kree DNA added in there as well, though I doubt that Yon-Rogg would have survived with just Kree DNA either, it was the unusual mixture of the two mixing with Tesseract energy that allowed you to survive," Tony said.

"You don't know that," Carol frowned but she did not sound sure.

"Tony has performed more research on the Tesseract and its energy than anyone else, even Mar-Vell as I gave him her notes that we found and he managed to translate it, I am presuming you have been monitoring and assessing the way the Kree DNA has fused with your own?" Fury asked Tony.

"He wouldn't stop poking," Yon-Rogg huffed.

"I have data, though I would like the kiddies to take a look and see what they think," Tony nodded to Peter and Harley who perked up.

"So, I wouldn't have survived?" Carol frowned sitting down on the sofa opposite the one Tony, Yon-Rogg, Harley and Peter were on.

"The human body wasn't made to take that sort of energy, nor was the Kree. The tesseract energy was likely to have been destroying you from the inside out. Bright Eyes managed to get his hands on the initial medical records for you, and I had a look. It seems as though the sudden change in your DNA, it confused the energy, and watching the Kree DNA merge with your human DNA, it copied or mimicked the action, mixing itself into the mix as well," Tony nodded.

"And you, you weren't the one that shot Mar-Vell?" Carol frowned turning to look properly at Yon-Rogg for the first time.

"No, I wanted to bring her in, Minn-Erva took the shot before I could stop her when we saw what she meant to do,"

"You were still one of them," Carol crossed her arms again, but Tony could see how much she still cared, how much she wanted to believe what was being said. He squeezed the hand still in his.

"I believed the same way you did, I believed what I was told, I believed that what we were doing was the right thing, and that people like the Skrull really were the enemy and risked the peace of the Galaxy. I only learned I was wrong when you did, I only learned what...what I had really done, what I had brought you into, when you did. I managed to change the direction of my ship, I didn't return back, I went to Xandar instead,"

"You were the one that alerted the Xandar?" Carol choked.

"I gave them everything that I knew, everything, and we got some Skrull in, they used their machine on me and went through every single inch of my head to make sure that there wasn't anything left hidden in there," Yon-Rogg shifted uncomfortably.

"Was there?" Carol frowned.

"Yes, plenty. The Intelligence had been repressing and getting rid of memories and thoughts that did not make me the perfect warrior. Any doubts, concerns, any thoughts that maybe what we were doing wasn't right was erased. They were hidden away in my head the way your memories were. Along with other bits of information that helped the Nova Corps gain control of the Kree, to put them under laws and stop their slaughters. I have the recording of the information that the Skrull found if you want proof," Yon-Rogg added.

"I...think I would like to see that," Carol nodded.

"Tony said that you have been protecting the earth for 15 years?" Rhodey asked.

"Yes, though SHIELD started making my life difficult to remain secret and still manage to help," Yon-Rogg huffed looking to Fury who smirked back. "Tony coming along as Iron Man helped take the pressure off of me for helping, and he managed to distract SHIELD from me as well,"

"I still have proof that you existed," Fury smirked wider. "Now I just have a face and name to go with the whisper of you,"

"The whisper of him?" Carol asked him.

"People he rescued, towns and villages that he helped evacuate from danger, towns that he protected from warlords and armies. They all whispered about him, I have a very big file on you. Nice to finally meet you," Fury nodded.

"You were very annoying," Yon-Rogg huffed.

"And now, you saved Tony by making him...half-alien?" Pepper asked.

"Basically yes, we spent the last month with me getting used to my new strength and still healing. Pretty much most of the damage has been undone though," Tony smiled.

"Tony…" Pepper started before looking at Rhodey.

"We know what happened in the Bunker, all of it. Barnes told us," Rhodey said. Suddenly it was Yon-Rogg squeezing Tony's hand, as both the boys pressed closer to him if possible.

"Barnes huh? Why?" Tony grit out.

"We dug up information on him, what HYDRA did to him to make him the soldier. We have the file ready for you…"

"You gave him BARF," Tony said interrupting Rhodey's rambling.

"Yeah, we thought…"

"That it is what I would have done, you're right it is. Are they back on American soil then?" Tony sighed.

"You don't know?" Fury frowned looking to Yon-Rogg.

"I was only able to get us bits and pieces of information of what was going on on Earth while we were in orbit. The first two months nearly all my time was focussed on Tony, to be honest, we have been catching up with what we can,"

"We know that they are not very popular and have not come out of it very well, but it has probably been long enough for people to forget and cool off and start forgiving the wonderful Captain America," Tony hissed the name.

"Tony...the world is firmly against them, and firmly in your corner. Here," Pepper grabbed the paper from the kitchen table where it had been abandoned only an hour before and handed it to Tony.

"What…" Tony wheezed as he took in the Headline.

Rogues finally arrested for their crimes!

"They have arrested them?!" Tony managed to say.

"They want nothing to do with them, there are countries lining up wanting to put charges at their feet for the things that they have done, they are currently under the Accords and the UN while it is decided who gets to go first. They aren't heroes anymore Tony, not after the things that they have done. And the world doesn't even know it all," Rhodey rolled over to sit in front of Tony.

"But...he's Captain America," Tony frowned.

"Doesn't mean shit anymore," Harley snorted.

"Language kid!" Tony scolded.

"The world has seen them for what they are. They chose to ignore what the world wanted for what they wanted, that isn't a hero. Maximoff wasn't with them though," Pepper sighed.

"What? Why?" Tony frowned looking concernedly at Vision.

"She killed several officers on the Task Force there to arrest them and hurt many others. That was the final straw for the Rogues it seems, they handed themselves in and gave Wanda...Maximoff's information, everything that they had, to the Task Force. But it seems she knew what was coming and ran. I surmise that her empathic side of her powers gave her the heads up that they were angry with what she had done, and gave her enough of a heads up to run," Vision explained.

"Are you ok Viz?" Tony asked gently.

"I am better now that you are back with us," Vision smiled.

"I'm glad to be back," Tony smiled. "So, catch me up on things?" He asked.

"Can I talk with you, alone?" Carol asked Yon-Rogg quietly.

"Of course," The ash-blond held his hand up to Tony who pouted mulishly at him.

"I won't attack him, I promise," Carol chuckled seeing the other's face.

"This place is nice," Yon-Rogg said as they walked further away from where they could hear Tony's friends and family catching him up on the Accords. "Though with Tony having a hand in it, I am not surprised,"

"He has good taste, and a big brain, the technology here is amazing," Carol nodded, stepping into a small living room.

"He managed to fix up my ship better than it has run in years with scraps and while still healing," Yon-Rogg chuckled.

"A ship that you have been using to circle the planet for 15 years?" Carol asked.

"Yes," Yon-Rogg sighed, turning to face her.

"Why?" She frowned.

"I...I redirected the ship that you sent me back in, I managed to aim it at Xandar, and I told them everything that I had found out, the war crimes that the Kree had been committing and covering it up by blaming the victims. I swear Vers...Carol, I didn't know, I followed along and closed my eyes to what was happening, to what the reality was, because I wanted to believe, I wanted to believe in the mighty and good Kree Empire and the fact that I was fighting on the right side. I absorbed and ate up the propaganda because...I didn't want it to be anything different,"

"I did the same thing, and I wasn't brought up on that propaganda from a baby," Carol said softly.

"Ronan opened my eyes, he laughed at me and told me I was a fool if he thought that the Kree were what I really thought they were. I told Xandar and the Nova Corps everything, and then I helped them in the fight to get them under law and control. For my help, the Corps allowed me to go free after I testified as to what the Kree had done,"

"And you came here? Why?" Carol frowned.

"Self-pity, self-punishment, nostalgia, nowhere else to go, you name it, it is probably all a reason. But Tony was right, this is your planet, this is where I did you wrong, I thought, maybe I could make up for my wrongs by protecting your home when I knew that you weren't here," Yon-Rogg frowned at his feet.

"And you have just been up there? Alone?" Carol frowned.

"I had a lot to make up for," Yon-Rogg shrugged.

"What changed your mind to come back?" Carol asked.

"Tony. He told me...that I had punished myself enough, and that I could be of more help down here, but I didn't have to do it alone without anyone to watch my back. And I knew you were down here," Yon-Rogg admitted.

"I...I missed you," Carol confessed, clenching her fists.

"I am so sorry, for everything that I did to you," Yon-Rogg said honestly, meeting her eyes.

"Why did you? Why did you lie?" Carol asked desperately.

"To protect you. They wanted to kill you. I convinced them not to, I thought that if I could make you a good Kree, if I could stop you poking around, I could keep you safe, stop them from taking you. I love you Vers, you're my little sister, I just wanted you safe," Yon-Rogg grit out. "But I did anything but that! I let them chip you because they told me it helped control your powers, I lied and kept things from you, things you had a right to know,"

"Emotions are a weakness," Carol chided.

"I have learned differently," Yon-Rogg snorted. "It has been a long 21 years,"

"Yeah, it has. I missed you," Carol stepped forward, and before Yon-Rogg could do anything else found himself swept into a hug that made his bones creak.

"I won't let you down again," He promised, stroking his hand over her fine blonde hair.

"Good, because the last 21 years have sucked," Carol sniffed.

"You can say that again," Yon-Rogg laughed squeezing her until she squeaked.

"So, Tony," Carol smirked making Yon-Rogg groan.

* * *

"You guys have been working hard!" Tony was saying impressed as Yon-Rogg and Carol walked back in.

"We found your notes on the Accord, did a little more work on them, and we have managed to push most of it through, the Accords are being praised by nearly everyone," Pepper nodded.

"Hey there Bright Eyes, Soccer Punch everything good?" Tony brightened seeing the two of them.

"All sorted," Yon-Rogg smiled at him, making his way across the room.

"Good, there has been some…"

"What the hell!" Yon-Rogg yelled throwing himself over the table, spinning and backing away from his attacker.

"Meow,"

"Since when do we have a cat?" Tony asked confused heading towards the ginger cat, only to have Yon-Rogg grab him around the waist and try and herd him and the boys away from the cat.

"That is a Flerken!" Yon-Rogg glared at the animal that was twining itself around Fury's feet.

"Yes, it is, and isn't he a good Flerkin, yes you are Goose aren't you, yes you are, even if you did eat daddy's favourite eyepatch and laptop again!" Fury cooed.

"You called a Flerkin Goose?" Yon-Rogg spluttered while trying to keep Tony's head down where it was popping up trying to see Goose.

"He was Mar-Vell's, he came with the name," Carol laughed. "He's good, he only eats the enemies,"

"He's a cat," Tony argued.

"Nope, Flerkin, does this amazing tentacle out the mouth thing, like a Kracken, awesome!" Harley grinned from where he was still attached to Tony.

"Totally cool," Peter nodded from Tony's other side.

"You have a pet Flerkin, of course, you do," Yon-Rogg sighed.

"Welcome to the madhouse," Carol laughed.

* * *

"Hey," Yon-Rogg smiled walking into Tony's lab, relieved to see that he had been given complete access.

"Hi there, how was your catch up?" Tony asked as he finished throwing a blanket over Peter and Harley, tucking them in.

"Good, hard but good. How are they?" Yon-Rogg nodded to the teens as he poured himself and Tony a cup of coffee.

"Holding on there, they're happy I'm back, but I think all the stress and hurt has finally caught up with them," Tony sighed dropping onto a sofa nearby where he could see the boys that had refused to leave his side all day.

"They called you dad," Yon-Rogg said gently sitting next to him and handed him a cup.

"Yeah they did," Tony smiled softly. "Nothing like a near-death experience to put things in order,"

"How are you feeling about it?" Yon-Rogg asked.

"Good, amazed, awed, honoured. I can't believe that they see me as a father figure,"

"I don't see why not, you're something that a lot of parents would be proud of their kids to grow up to be. They love you, and they look up to you," Yon-Rogg said simply.

"I love them too," Tony smiled dropping his head onto the back of the sofa not looking away from the boys. "I hope you know that they're incredibly curious about you,"

"Of course they are, I'm even more alien than Carol," Yon-Rogg laughed.

"Though apparently not as much as the Flerkin," Tony snorted.

"Can't believe that they have that bloody thing wandering around here," Yon-Rogg shuddered.

"So, what do you think?" Tony asked.

"Think?" The full Kree asked opening his eyes to look over at the brunette.

"The Compound, somewhere you would be happy sticking around?" Tony asked nervously.

"If you are here, I will be happy sticking around," Yon-Rogg said softly, his green eyes intent on Tony.

"I…"

"DAD?!" Harley sat up with a gasp, startling Peter awake, the two of them looking around panicked.

"Hey I'm right here, it's ok," Tony was at their side in moments, rubbing their shoulders.

"Perhaps it would be a good idea to retreat for the night? Sleep would probably do us all good," Yon-Rogg suggested gently once the boys were calm.

"See, now he is just using you as an excuse to get me to sleep," Tony whispered conspiratorially to the boys stroking his fingers through their hair as they sleepily looked around, still wide-eyed and panting.

"You're really here," Harley sniffed tightening his hold on Tony's shirt.

"Here, stand for a moment," Yon-Rogg said after a few moments. The boys shuffled to their feet and watched with Tony curiously as Yon-Rogg took the cushions from the sofa, grabbed some more from the comfy chair, and then placed them along the floor by the futon that Tony kept in there.

"Looks like we're having a campout," Tony grinned.

"Pft that is for humans," Yon-Rogg sniffed before activating his Magnitrition Gauntlets and the boys ooed as they watched the pile of cushions and mattress float a couple of feet off the floor. "There we go, now you're not sleeping on a cement floor,"

"You're staying as well," Tony said. It was clearly meant to come out an arrogant statement but sounded more questioning and hopeful.

"It does look comfortable," Yon-Rogg shrugged, and pretended that he didn't see the relieved look on Tony's face as he helped Harley up onto their floating bed.

"This is so cool," Peter hopped up in one easy jump and hung over the side to look at the gauntlets.

"You can have a look at them in the morning," Yon-Rogg promised before sweeping Tony off his feet and placed him on the bed.

"I am not made of glass," Tony huffed as he crawled between the boys.

"But you are still healing," The Kree shrugged hopping up himself and lay along the bottom of the bed.

"You're cool, you saved Tony, look after him and have cool toys," Harley said blinking sleepily at him, swaying where he was sitting.

"You can tell me that again tomorrow when I know you will remember saying it," Yon-Rogg chuckled helping Tony lay the teen down and spread a blanket over him.

Turning they both laughed when they realised Peter was lying on his back, limbs at all angles except for the hand he had fixed in Tony's shirt, snoring softly. They managed to get the blanket over him as well before Tony settled down between them. The two of them snuggled into him as soon as he lay down.

"I hate Rogers even more for what he put them through," Tony admitted into the silence of the Lab, the soft green light of the gauntlets the only lighting around them as FRIDAY shut everything down.

"They missed you," Yon-Rogg said gently, his hand wrapping comfortingly around Tony's ankle.

"They did well, but they thought I was probably dead, they have gone through so much," Tony kissed both their heads holding them closer.

"You're back, and this time you're going to be even harder to put down. And that is with someone managing to go through me first," Yon-Rogg promised.

"We have each other's backs remember," Tony snorted.

"Yeah, but if they want to hurt you, they're going through me," Yon-Rogg was smirking, Tony just knew it.

"Go to sleep Mother Hen," Tony poked him gently in the chest.

"You need Mother Henning," Yon-Rogg grumbled.

* * *

"That is just weird," Tony snorted walking into the kitchen, Harley had his finger looped through Tony's belt loop and Peter was clinging to Tony's shirt trailing behind him like a pair of ducklings.

"They have been doing it for the last hour," Pepper shrugged pouring a cup of coffee for Tony, her eyes glued to him now he was in the room.

"We're coming to an agreement," Yon-Rogg said, not moving his chin from the table, or his eyes from Goose's.

"You're staring out a cat, Flerkin, whatever. He's a handsome cat though isn't he, yes he is, do you want tummy rubs? I bet you do,"

"TONY!" Yon-Rogg squeaked holding his hand out to try and stop Tony from his suicide mission to tickle Goose's stomach. Only the ginger cat rolled over happily and started purring a storm as Tony's mechanic fingers tickled his belly.

"I will never get fed up of watching Aliens interact with him," Fury snickered, dropping three plates of pancakes onto the table. "The Skrulls were as funny,"

"Oh, be still my heart is this your Blueberry and banana pancakes," Tony gasped.

"It's your first day back," Fury grunted.

"Gramps…" Harley started to plead, puppy dog eyes already activated.

"I have already called your school and told them that you won't be in for the rest of this week due to a family emergency, only for the rest of this week though," Fury warned. Though it was less threatening when he was wearing an Iron Man apron wielding a spatula.

"Have you had some of these?" Tony asked Yon-Rogg who peered at the syrup covered pancakes uncertainly.

"No,"

"Here!" Tony held out a forkful.

"I am ok,"

"You have to try them,"

"I am really ok,"

"They are amazing, and if you're going to be living on earth you need to start trying human foods, try them,"

"No,"

"Yes,"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"N...umph," Yon-Rogg glowered when Tony used the chance to shove the fork into his mouth. Then he blinked and started chewing. "It's ok, I might need another bite to decide though," The Kree stole the fork from Tony and took a bigger chunk to Tony's indignant squawk and took ate it happily.

"My pancakes!" Tony whined trying to defend his plate as Yon-Rogg tried to go in for a third piece.

"You wanted me to try human foods,"

"Not my human foods, get your own!"

"I am getting my own,"

"Not mine! That's a whole pancake don't you dare, don't you dare!" Tony was on top of the table grappling for Yon-Rogg who was managing to hold him at arm's length while eating the whole pancake.

"Yum!" Yon-Rogg smirked as Tony drooped.

"You're mean,"

"I know," The Kree smirked smugly back at him.

"Stop pouting, get off the table and here," Fury rolled his eye, dropping a plate of pancakes in front of Yon-Rogg and replaced the stolen pancake onto Tony's pile.

"I love you," Tony sighed hopping back into his seat.

"I will not say that I love you," Yon-Rogg said dryly.

"You have changed," Carol said walking over to them looking as though she had been crying with laughter.

"I have no idea what you mean, I was always funny," Yon-Rogg shrugged when she sat next to him, his green eyes cautious as he watched her.

"Yeah no you really weren't, you always got the lemon face when I made a joke," Carol snorted, grinning when a plate of pancake appeared in front of her.

"Lemon face?" Yon-Rogg frowned.

"This face," Carol said before pursing her lips exaggeratedly.

"Why is that a lemon face?" Yon-Rogg asked confused. "Is it not a fruit here?"

"You haven't had anything with lemon?" Harley asked wide-eyed.

"No, I have eaten very little human food," The Kree shrugged.

"Wait here!" Peter and Harley scrambled for the kitchen, dancing around Fury before they raced back with their loot. Tony snorted amused when he saw what they had brought back.

Lemon

Lemonade

Sherbet lemon

Lemon cake

Lemon juice.

"Try this first!" Harley said, handing over the lemon cut in half.

"I have a feeling that you are pranking me, but very well," The Kree sighed before biting into the lemon. The only person that laughed harder than the boys was Carol at the expression on Yon-Rogg's face.

"Here drink this," Tony chuckled pouring the lemonade and passed it over.

"I do not wish to try it," Yon-Rogg gasped.

"It is sweet I promise," Tony laughed pressing the glass into his hand. The Kree shot the glass a suspicious look, but met Tony's eyes and took a drink. He licked his lips peering into the glass and taking another drink.

"I like this," He hummed.

"Try this!" Peter slid across a slice of cake.

"Wait! You need to try beef jerky, and…"

"Harley we have plenty of time to catch Yon-Rogg up on human foods," Tony laughed snagging the teen and tugging him back into his seat. "Let him eat his pancakes,"

"Try some of the lemon juice on them," Harley hissed nudging the lemon juice over.

"This...goes surprisingly well,"

"Oh this is going to be fun," Carol smirked.

* * *

"So, superpowers?" Rhodey asked as Tony measured his legs.

"Not really superpowers more a part of my new DNA make up," Tony said thoughtfully.

"Well there is only one full Kree on earth, and only two half Kree, half-humans so, it seems like a superpower. What can you do?" His best friend asked curiously.

"I'm stronger, more durable, I heal quicker, bleed blue blood now," Tony listed.

"And how are you feeling about that?" Rhodey asked and Tony smiled at the knowing look his friend gave him.

"It isn't the same as the arc reactor. I was such a mess, and Yon-Rogg gave me a choice between what happened to me, including letting me die fully human. I was so determined not to die, not to allow Rogers that win that I didn't care," Tony admitted typing busily at the holopage in front of him.

Rhodey turned to look at the boys making sure that they were far enough away and distracted with Yon-Rogg's gauntlets, and met the unusually light green eyes of the man who had saved Tony. They were narrowed and looking between himself and Tony, and Rhodey realised with a small smile he was making sure Tony wasn't getting distressed by whatever they were talking about.

"What do you want to ask?" Tony asked turning back to his friend and looking at him pointedly.

"How bad was it?" Rhodey asked seriously.

"Rhod…"

"I need to know Tones," Rhodey said gripping the edge of the table.

"Bright Eyes says that I died once during the transfusion. I wouldn't have survived if he hadn't found me. I am fairly sure that aside from someone magical finding me, I wouldn't have survived at all," Tony sighed.

"Tones…" Tony groaned as Rhodey's eyes went suspiciously wet and big, and he knew what was coming next.

"Everything ok over here?" Yon-Rogg asked wandering over ten minutes later.

"He's hugging me," Tony shrugged.

"I can see that, you have been hugging for the last ten minutes," Rhodey looked up at that statement and smirked when he noted the expression on the Kree's face. Pointedly he ran his fingers through Tony's hair, hitting the spot that...

Rhodey was wearing what he knew was a shit-stirring smirk when Tony practically purred and melted into him as he hit the spot that he knew would turn his friend to jelly, and Tony's Kree rescuer looked as though he was about to pop a blood vessel.

"I thought you were working on leg braces," Yon-Rogg bristled.

"We are, in five more minutes," Tony groaned wiggling further into Rhodey like a cat cat, not a cat Flerken.

"The boys want to help you," Yon-Rogg bristled even more.

"Ok…" Tony hummed.

"Up you," Rhodey poked Tony in the side making him yelp and flail back, Yon-Rogg grabbing him around the waist was the only thing that stopped him flailing into the worktable behind them.

"That was just mean Honey Bear," Tony pouted rubbing his side, completely and adorably oblivious to the look on Yon-Rogg's face at having Tony away from Rhodey and against him.

"So, they're drooling all over each other," Harley snorted watching Yon-Rogg 'helping' Tony fetch what he needed.

"It's cute," Peter grinned.

"Of course you would think it is cute," Harley rolled his eyes.

"Well, it is, he clearly cares for dad and wants to look after him," Peter pouted.

"And he could put anyone that wants to hurt Tones through a wall," Rhodey added.

"That is definitely a plus," Harley agreed.

"He looks at Dad like he would rather chop his own arm off than hurt him," Peter grinned.

"You are ridiculous," Harley shook his head.

"I am not I…"

"DAD!" Tony and Yon-Rogg turned in time to see Peter swinging across the lab while Harley chased after him shooting his webbing with repulser blasts.

"Kids!" Tony huffed hurrying after them.

"Oh...cool!" Tony spun with a grin at Yon-Rogg as Peter and Harley floated around the room caught in the Kree's gauntlet power, Peter beaming at the man.

"That is definitely handy," Tony laughed.


	7. Tony Stark Yes

Chapter Seven

Yon-Rogg leant against the doorframe of the bedroom smiling softly as he watched Tony. He had not seen much of the genius today on their third day at the Compound, and Tony had had to catch up with the 'admin' of what he had missed, mainly he had been focused on the Accords, and to the amusement of the others he had scrawled notes all over the changes that they had made, more changes flowing out of him like a thought.

He and Pepper had also spent time working on the public announcement of the fact that he was, in fact, alive and well, and what they were going to say about what had happened to him. The last that he and Tony had spoken the genius had been torn about what he wanted to do about Captain America and what he had done to him, and what he would tell the public about what had happened.

Tony had also reviewed the information on The Winter Soldier today, everything that Tony's team had pulled up on him and what he had been through.

Which was why Yon-Rogg was here right now. The others had been speaking about how Tony was taking it, wondering how he would cope with it. And he had just stood and moved to find Tony, he was not going to leave him to stew in his thoughts alone when he could at least be in the room with him.

It was not a surprise to find him in the boys' room, the teens had decided that they were going to share a room while Tony was gone, and while they were making noise about separate rooms which would no doubt happen, right now they still needed the comfort of the other that had been provided when they thought Tony might be dead.

Tony was sitting on the side of Harley's bed, tucking the snoring teen in carefully, before he stood and moved over to tuck Peter's leg off the floor and back onto the bed before he ran his fingers through the teen's brown hair and tucked him in as well.

The Kree would think that the two were Tony's if he did not know better. Peter looked like Tony, with those big brown eyes and his soft, fluffy brown hair, and that amazing brain that made jumps and leaps faster than any ship Yon-Rogg had ever piloted. Harley was sharp wit, a fast tongue and poker bright twisting metal to do what he wanted it to do with what seemed like a mere thought, and under the bristle and the barrage of words was a soft heart and a good soul.

But even though they were not blood. They were everything to Tony, that much was clear on the other's face, and his heart thumped as he took in the loving expression on Tony's face, the adoration and absolute devotion that he could read on Tony's face for these two humans. He loved the others and would do anything for them, he would rip the world apart with his bare hands for these two boys.

"Come," Yon-Rogg took Tony's hand gently in his when the other lingered, easing him from the room and into the one next to the boys that was Tony's.

"All I keep thinking is what if something happened to them. Reading the reports, how many families were ripped apart, all I can think is what if I lost them, what if the Winter Soldier had been sent after them? What if someone else comes after them? What if Rogers had killed me, what if you had gotten there an hour later? What if the Winter Soldier had been sent to kill me as well, or if I had been in that car with mum and dad? What if someone like him was sent to kill me now, what would that do to the boys? I can see how much they have been hurt by this, and how much they have suffered because they thought I might be dead. What if they actually have to bury me?"

"You would do everything in your power to stop them from being hurt, to stop something from happening to them. I know that you would do everything in and out of your power to protect them. And I would do the same, for them and for you," Yon-Rogg promised.

"Why?" Tony's brown eyes were filled with all the betrayal and hurt, all the loss and self-doubt that filled the man. The demons that haunted him were so clear. Yon-Rogg sat down next to him on the bed and cupped his face gently in one hand, cradling his handsome face, and stared into those eyes so Tony would see the truth in his own.

"You are all I have, you and Carol. I love her, I always will, and I will always be where she needs me now that we have found each other again. But you, the minute I saw you, Tony, the minute you looked at me in that Bunker and I saw the fight still in you, I saw how much you were fighting to live, you reminded me what it is to live for something, to fight for something. I have been drifting through life for so long now, I had forgotten. Being with you, I have more life and fight in me that I have for a long time. I would do anything for you, I will burn everything to the ground to protect you, and those boys are part of you, they are bound to you in a way no one can unmake, and so I would do the same for them. How can I not care for them when they are so clearly of you?" Yon-Rogg tilted his head in a way that reminded Tony he was not human, but it just made him smile softly.

"You...that…"

"Yes?" Yon-Rogg urged gently.

"You have no idea what that means to me, to know. To hear. I don't think I have been that to anyone before. I have been the spare part to be thrown away for someone else because I am never anyone's priority," Tony confessed, and he sounded so like a little boy hoarding a piece of candy that he had been given in kindness as though unsure he was allowed to keep it.

Yon-Rogg leant forward and pressed his lips to Tony's hair, holding his head gently against his breast as he held Tony like he could protect him from the world. "That stops now, you're my priority, we are bound by blood, and I will burn everything to protect you. I can't promise that something won't happen to you, or the boys, because we both know that isn't how the world works. But if someone dares try to take you from me, I will burn the world around their ears to reach you and...should someone take your life, I already fear what my reaction would be, I know I would rain all the hurt and death and blood that my people are known for down upon them until they beg for mercy I would not have,"

Tony wound his arms around Yon-Rogg's waist, pressing his face into the chest under his face that was heaving just at the mere thought of Tony or the boys being hurt, and he knew that he meant every single word that he said.

It wasn't the empty words or promises that had fallen from the Avengers lips, lies about being a team and having each others' backs, words that had been so easily broken, so quickly broken when faced with their first real challenge. Words that had left Tony cold, broken, bleeding and dying in a cold bunker with no one to protect and guard him the way that they promised they would.

"If...if something happened to you, or the boys, I would become what SHIELD and my enemies always feared I would become, I would crush everything in front of me, I would destroy everything to punish anyone that dared hurt you," Tony promised lifting his head, and was treated to the shocked expression on Yon-Rogg's face, his beautiful glass green eyes widening in shock.

"I'm…"

"I died in that Bunker, Tony Stark died there. You, you helped me wake up and let go of the things that I had been clinging so hard to, clinging even though it burned and tore me apart. The Tony that died in that bunker, he would have forgiven and forgotten, he probably would have been working himself to death to get pardons for them, to bring them back, and would have begged their forgiveness,"

"And this Tony?" Yon-Rogg tilted his head.

"This Tony is the one that you gave a second chance to. Yinsen and Afghanistan, the arc reactor, that gave me my first chance and I came back ripped raw, opened like a wound and a blank slate to be written upon, I was so desperate to be good, to be better, to put right. I allowed others to scrawl all over me, you yank me this was and that until I was the shape that they wanted. SHIELD, Coulson, Steve, Natasha, Clint, Thor, Bruce, the Avengers, even Fury and the others that I love and care for, all of them they took chunks of me, and I let them because I was still raw and hurt, and looking for recognition, for someone to pat me on the head and tell me that I was better,"

"And now," The Kree reached out because he could not bear the thought of that Tony, the Tony someone who should have been helped and people had just taken advantage of.

"You, your blood, it is my second chance. I'm not an open wound anymore, I am a scar, I have all the pain and the memory of the wound that was there before, but there isn't anything open and hurting for them to poke at anymore, and they can't sink their claws in to tug me the way that they want me to go anymore, I know who I am, and I know who I am going to be. I know what I want to do with my future, and I don't need anyone's approval or that pat on the head anymore. I want people at my side and with me, but I don't need it. I have come back harder and I know who I am now," Tony said with so much surety and darkness in his eyes for those that had hurt him that the Kree shivered.

"Those that hurt you?"

"They will find no forgiveness, pity or mercy with me. They won't hide behind me, my money and my name anymore. They made their choices, they used me and left me behind, now they live with that choice. I won't stand for betrayal anymore," Tony nodded.

"And of Barnes?" Yon-Rogg asked gently.

"The others were right, they did what I would have done. The BARF technology belongs with him, he deserves to have his mind back and not have to worry about anyone using them as their own personal glove puppet anymore," Tony nodded.

"But,"

"I can't be his redemption, and I can't be his recovery. I have lost too much, and I won't risk him here and risk losing more. Maybe in the future when it is not so raw, I will be able to shake his hand and meet him face to face, but not now. What is stupid, is that if Steve had told me, when I first found out, if all this had not happened around me finding out, I think I would have been able to take him in and help him myself, I would have looked passed everything. But he is coloured with…"

"Rogers and his betrayal," Yon-Rogg said for him.

"Yes, and that is something I can never forgive," Tony nodded.

"You never have to,"

"Others would say that I should forgive them, if nothing else but for the world,"

"The world can go fuck itself, and it can protect itself, you have to do nothing that you don't want to do, and that doesn't make you the bad guy, it means that for once they are going to realise that there are consequences for the actions that they have taken,"

"Can you stay with me tonight?" Tony asked softly.

"Of course," Yon-Rogg smiled back with equal softness, combing his fingers through Tony's soft brown hair.

* * *

"I did not sign up for this," Yon-Rogg sighed, narrowing his eyes at Tony when the genius started giggling as the Kree moved the socked, sweaty foot of a human teenager out of his face. Peter snorted and shifted, wrapping his arms around Yon-Rogg's leg and snuggling in like it was a teddy bear. Harley grumbled in his sleep and nearly kicked Tony in the face, and would have had Yon-Rogg not reached out and gently deflected the blow, before dropping the leg onto Tony's stomach, smirking when the genius let out a soft oomph.

He had no clue when the teenagers had crawled into the bed with them, all he remembered was going to sleep with Tony lying next to him, his soft breaths filling the room, the promises and words both spoken and unspoken between them in a way that was soothing.

The unspoken words did not burn or yearn to be let out, they were not ready for them yet, they were building towards them, they both knew what they were just as they both knew that now wasn't the time for them to be spoken.

Yon-Rogg had been sure that he would never find anyone to say these words to, that he would never be gifted with the joy of knowing the chance of having a person in that place in his life. He had been sure that the family life was not for him, it was not something that he was going to be blessed with.

He had known that decades ago.

Vers, Carol had come along and he thought that maybe having her in his life was the closest he was going to get to it, that this was his chance at having a taste at what he saw others were allowed to have, what they were allowed to be destined for.

And then everything after, his redemption and the life he had chosen to live. He had thought that he had contented himself for that life, that he would live it until he wasn't quick enough one day, and that would be ok.

And then he had looked down into the burning, furious brown eyes of Tony Stark that had been filled with hurt, betrayal, loss, pain and agony, yes, but they had also been filled fire, life, knowledge and kindness, despite everything that had been done to him he had had so much kindness still in him. And Yon-Rogg had begun to hope.

That hope flared and came to life as he and Tony got to know each other, and suddenly he thought that maybe...maybe…

And then that day when Tony had asked him to come back with him, had held his hand and looked him in the eyes, had seen him at his worst and still offered him so much, he had known.

He looked at Tony who was smiling gently back at him.

In the bed with Tony and the two teens that were so much like his mate to be, he realised that the family life might be allowed to him after all.

* * *

Natasha sighed when the door opened again and she wondered what she was to be treated to this time. They had been interrogating her for days now, and she partially wished that they would just throw her in whatever dark cell that they had set aside for her and leave her be.

She was fed up of answering the same questions over and over and over.

"Miss Romanoff, we thought that you and your team might like to see this,"

Clint stared confused as they placed the tablet down in front of him and started tapping it to bring it to life, then his eyes widened as he saw who was standing at the head of what was clearly a press conference.

Sam sucked in a choked breath, his eyes desperately scanning the date of the video and confirmed that this was a new press conference, from 12 hours ago, and his head spun as he took in what that meant.

"Tony?!" Steve croaked unable to take his eyes from the screen as he took in the man standing there, smirking at the crowd, winking at a few journalists the way Steve had seen him do a million times. He was so so familiar in a way that made Steve ache.

"Wait till you hear what he has to say," Their captors said to them.

_*"Mr Stark is going to give his statement now, questions will not be taken at this point in time, it is a statement only, we have agreed that there will be a further chance for questions and answers at a later date. Please welcome Mr Stark," The PR lady said before stepping back and allowed Tony to take the stand, cards in hand._

_"Hello everyone, long time no see, I hope that you haven't missed me too much, though it seems as though even me going missing for three months can't stop you all from speculating about me,"_

_Tony winked at the room as it filled with laughter, though the confusion on their faces and the urge to ask questions was clear even without seeing the journalists faces._

_"Ok, so, elephant in the room, I have been missing for three months since the events of the Civil War, and you all want to know what happened, where I was and why I am suddenly back looking as though nothing has happened right? Ok, so, after the events at the airport that you have all seen thanks to sneaky sneaky cameras. I went to Siberia to help Captain America, Steve Rogers where he had gone with The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes, to stop what he thought was a HYDRA Agent from awakening more Winter Soldiers that HYDRA had made, and these didn't have a conscience or memories to pull them back from being a terrifying army of Super Soldiers as they were HYDRA Soldiers who willingly volunteered and wanted to be part of destroying the world and remaking it in their image._

_Rogers and Barnes went to Siberia to try and stop them after the airport, and they walked into a trap, a trap that wasn't completed until I strolled in, there to back them up. The trap was designed to destroy the Avengers, and it succeeded._

_Zemo, who was the one to bomb the UN conference in regard to the Accords as the start of his trap, had gotten his hands on a video, a video of the night that my parents died. I was told that they died in a car accident, this was not the case. HYDRA sent Bucky Barnes, the Winter Solider to kill my parents. It was an assassination,"_

_The room filled with gasps and cries of questions, but Tony steeled his shoulders and looked right down the camera, the cards he had brought with him clearly being ignored._

_"I was, hurt, furious, grieving all over again, and then I realised that Steve Rogers wasn't shocked, he looked defeated, and I realised that he knew, he had known. He tried to deny it at first, but when I pushed he admitted that he had known for two years, since the fall of SHIELD/HYDRA. The mixture of betrayal and seeing the face of my parents killer right there, I lost it and I attacked,"_

_"Did you mean to kill them?!" Someone shouted from the crowd._

_"No, I wanted them to hurt the way that I was hurting, but I did not want to kill them. Captain America was still my team member and despite the betrayal, he was still my friend, I was angry and grief-stricken, but I was aware enough to pull my punches. Sadly, Captain America did not feel the same way._

_I am not sure how long the fight lasted, but it ended with The Winter Soldier minus an arm, and my chest caved in,"_

_Gasps filled the room again and Steve felt sick as he watched Tony's face, all hint of the showman gone, everyone and anyone could see how much he had been hurt, not physically, by what had happened._

_"Isn't your chest compromised?"_

_"Surely Captain America knew that your chest was weak after the arc reactor?"_

_"What did he do?!"_

_"The Captain drove his shield, the shield my father, his friend, had made for him, into the chest of my armour again and again. I won't go into gory details, but the shield managed to break through to my chest and went through skin and bone, the fractured suit also went through me. And then he and Barnes left,"_

_"They left you lying there?!"_

_"Yes, they did. Someone came to rescue them and they left. I think it took me an hour to get out of the suit, though it is not very clear. And I lay beside the suit for an unknown amount of time, before the self destruct feature of my suit, designed to stop enemies getting hold of the technology, activated. I was not strong enough to get into the suit to manually deactivate it, and I did not have the strength to crawl far enough away. I made it a little bit away before the suit went up, and it badly burnt and shredded my lower legs,"_

_"How did you survive?!"_

_"How are you here?"_

_"How do you look ok if this happened?"_

_"I was rescued," And the smile Tony gave was small, but honest and warm. "Yon-Rogg is from another planet, he is called a Kree, and he has been protecting this world secretly for the last 15 years, he and Captain Marvel are close friends, though they have not seen each other or been in touch for that time, and are enjoying reuniting now. He managed to transfer me to his ship where it was orbiting the earth, and he offered me three choices, two would change me, one would be to let me die._

_I was not quite ready to be done with yet, and so I chose to allow him to give me a blood transfusion that has left me half-human, half Kree. I died once during the procedure, but he was able to bring me back and it was successful. Kree heal quicker than human do, and so my recovery was far faster than it would have been, not that I would have survived without the actions taken. The consequences of my now being part alien have been discussed with the Accords Council, and I have been moved into the category of enhanced human now, and I am proud to say that I am part Kree, without it I would not be here today._

_The last three months have been spent with my healing, I was unconscious for two of them, both from the wounds and the procedure itself. The last month healing so that I could come home to those that I love and care for._

_I returned a week ago, that time has been sent with my family and friends, I am sure you will understand the delay in the announcement for a reunion to loved ones who thought me dead and getting to be with them after I was sure that I would die._

_Yon-Rogg has returned with me, and intends to carry on protecting the Earth as he has been with the Avengers and in plain sight from now on. He signed the Accords yesterday, and is now an official part of the team, and I am sure that his presence here on Earth and in the Avengers will only make the Earth a safer place, he is a good, honourable man who has plenty to offer._

_As for the Avengers. My friends have all been very busy while I have been gone, and I am sure that you have noticed that there have been heroes protecting and helping as the Avengers have always done._

_I am here to officially announce that the Avengers will carry on, the actions that have been taken by my ex-teammates will not be allowed to determine and diminish what the Avengers were created for, and that I will not allow what happened to be the end of the Avengers._

_Iron Man will as always protect and guard against those who hurt others, Captain Marvel will be heading the team with me. And we are looking for more team members, too long was the Avengers a small number of people, too few eggs in one basket, that was a mistake I intend to fix. So, if you are interested in protecting the earth and are enhanced, or have a super-suit like Iron Man, please send your applications in. There will be psychological exams that you will need to pass, but there is a place waiting for you if you want to help protect the Earth and make it a safer place._

_I have hurt a lot of people, and I have not been the best person to protect the world, I have not been the hero that you needed. But I will be better, I have learned my lesson I promise, and I will do everything to be the hero that I want to be, that you need me to be._

_As to my ex-teammates. Once upon a time, I wouldn't have told you what happened, I would have stood up here and protected them, defended them because they had my loyalty and I cared for them._

_I am not heartless or a robot, I am hurting for what happened, for what was destroyed, and a part of me will always care for them, what we went through over the years, that can never be undone._

_But the betrayal that was dealt to me, that can also never be undone. In a time where I needed the team to be with me, to have my back and listen to what I was trying to tell them, they showed me that they did not have the trust, faith, time or care for me that I had for them. They turned their backs on me, and this time I can not find myself to forgive them._

_I nearly died, I did die, because I forgave and tried to help._

_This is coming to an end, and I am sure that you will all be desperate to get out of here and unclench from the uncomfortability from what I am telling you, and write the articles that I am sure you are desperate to write. So, I will keep the rest simple._

_I am pressing charges against Steven Grant Rogers for attempted murder, and I will give evidence against him for the other crimes that he committed._

_I will give factual statements as to what I know about Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff and Sam Wilson in regard to their actions and the charges that are being brought against them._

_My last act of friendship towards them, or self of duty, will be to ensure that the three of them have a good lawyer, and then I can carry on with my life without any doubts. I have no doubt that they will be going to prison, a good lawyer will help make sure that it is not for the rest of their lives._

_I will be assisting the Task Force in bringing in Wanda Maximoff, if she is listening I would ask her to hand herself in before more people get hurt in this, and say to her that the longer she runs, the more severe the justice system will be on her._

_As for Bucky Barnes. I wish to stand here today and say that Bucky Barnes was at no fault for any of the actions that he was forced to take during his forced capture at the hands of HYDRA and that Sergeant Barnes has to be counted as the oldest Prisoner of War in the world, and he needs to be treated as such. He is not to blame for the death of my parents, that was on HYDRA, and that the man deserves a chance to heal and have a life that was ripped away from him by animals who tortured a good man, and twisted him into something that he wasn't, a good man who after 70 years of pain and hurt that none of us can even begin to imagine, carried on fighting against them and what they wanted him to do._

_I will say this now for the world to hear. I will be assisting in making sure that Bucky Barnes is given a fair trial and my lawyers will be at his side for it, and I will not rest until he is found innocent and treated with the respect and kindness that I am sure he has not known for decades now._

_Thank you very much,"*_

Steve stared as the reporters went into uproar, and screamed questions at Tony, the man walking off the stage, shoulders back and chin high in a way Steve knew meant that that had been impossibly hard for Tony to have to do.

His ears were ringing though.

They had broken every tie that they had to Tony.

He had killed him, he had died, and he would definitely be dead if an alien had not found him and transformed him.

He had been healing for three months even with advanced healing.

He was done with the team.

He was making a new team, a better team, he had already started.

And what was the worst of it? He was helping Bucky. He was going to fight for him and help him, and make sure that Bucky got his life back.

Steve stared at the tablet, not hearing the voices of his jailors muttering the words 'in shock' concerned around him.

He couldn't hear them over the roaring in his head, and the words circling around 'he should have just told Tony when he found out, he should have told Tony, and none of this would have happened'.

Because of course, Tony was helping Bucky.

That was what Tony did, that was who Tony was, and as ever Steve had forgotten that under the cloud of the image he had of Tony.

Bucky would be saved, and it was not going to be Steve that saved him, and he wasn't going to be allowed to be at his side.

He had ripped his world apart for nothing, because Tony would never have made him make the choice between Bucky and him.

Because Tony was a better man than Steve would ever be.

* * *

"So…" Tony grinned walking into the living room and seeing everyone gathered clearly having watched his conference.

"That poor PR woman will be sobbing into her cards, again," Rhodey snorted.

"I don't know why we bother giving you them," Fury nodded.

"Yes yes we know that, but was it ok?" Tony waved them off.

"It was brilliant," Pepper smiled wrapping him in a tight hug he hadn't realised he needed till now. The smell of her perfume and shampoo familiar ad comforting as he squeezed her, carefully, back.

"This lot said that you were impressive during these things, but damn!" Carol whistled from where she was sitting beside Yon-Rogg with her legs over his lap. His Kree looked so happy at the contact, at getting her close again, and that she trusted him and was giving him another chance.

"Thank you very much," He said with a bow getting a laugh from them. "Hey Goose," He cooed reaching down to pet the cat that was rubbing against his legs purring.

He snickered when he heard the part distressed, part disgusted noise from Yon-Rogg and knew his facial expression would match.

"Did you put out an ad to be an Avenger by the way?" Vision asked amused as Tony flopped down on Yon-Rogg's other side who was glaring at Goose who had followed the half Kree.

"I did indeed, and I made this," Tony reached under the armchair Fury was sitting in and produced the sign he had made the day before to make them laugh.

Sure enough, they fell about laughing, even Yon-Rogg chuckled at the sign.

_Avengers Wanted, Apply within - no underage, no villains, no psychopaths, no one with evil laughter or dastardly plans._

"Dastardly plans, really?" Rhodey snorted.

"It covers all bases," Tony shrugged.

"So basically, not Wanda aside from the age part," Vision stated.

"Reached the sarcastic joke part of the grieving process," Tony nodded to Vision.

"It does make me feel better," Vision hummed.

"Basically yes then," Tony grinned.

"The boys are going to tantrum when they see the age part," Yon-Rogg snorted.

"I imagine Tantrums would be easier to deal with if one of the tantrumers couldn't stick themselves to the ceiling to pout," Tony chuckled.

"So, making sure that they have lawyers?" Fury asked, with surprising gentleness.

"Yeah," Tony shrugged, hating the defensiveness that swelled inside of him.

"You know that you don't have to do that right? They don't deserve that from you," Fury pressed and Tony looked at him in shock.

"I thought you would be on the spy twins side at least," Tony admitted quietly.

"Phil is my team in the way they were to you. Neither of us would ever dream of doing what they did to you to each other, because that isn't what team does, you talk it through, and even when you disagree or before you have had a chance to discuss things, you give the other the benefit of the doubt until you can hear what the other has to say. What they did was inexcusable, and I taught them better. You stab anyone else in the back to survive, but not your team, never, that is a loyalty that needs to be stronger than steel. You had that, they did not. They made their beds, now they need to lie in them," Fury said firmly, leaning forward to tap Tony on the knee.

"But…"

"No, I never showed it as much as I should have, but you were as important to me as them, I cared for you just as much, and you did nothing wrong, they acting in a way that I can never condone. I am firmly on your side, and I am not moving, I will do everything that I can to make sure that that doesn't happen again. So, if you will have me I would like to be the first to put my name forward under your ad,"

"WHAT?!" Tony choked.

"The Avengers was my child, it was something that I dreamt of, and I know in yours and Carol's hands, it will be what I dreamt it to be. You see people the way I wanted them to be seen, heroes in their own individual right, not weapons, and not for their worth. I want to be a part of that," Fury smiled.

"I don't know if you will pass the psychological," Carol snorted, stepping in when she could see how overwhelmed Tony was.

"Pft please, I am the master spy, I can crack those things like a nut and make it seem like I am 100% sane," Fury drawled.

"And how sane would you say you are?" Rhodey smirked.

"Oh, at least 8...9% easy!" Fury smirked as they started laughing.

"Well, that is a whole 5% more than Tony!" Pepper laughed.

"Hey!"

"And a whole 6% more than Rhodey for following in Tony's wake," She added, ducking the two pillows that flew at her.

"I was using that," Yon-Rogg narrowed his eyes at Tony.

"Shame," Tony grinned.

* * *

"Anthony! I remember you when you were just a little boy, look how you have grown! Such a fine young man!" Janet Van Dyne had his face in her hands in seconds and was looking him over. "Your mother was so proud of you, she would always speak about what you were inventing and that you were going to change the world, she would be so proud to see you and see how right she was!"

"Thank you," Tony managed to say, the smile on his face real though small.

"Amazing woman she was, I am sorry for your loss Anthony," Janet said gently, patting him on the back. "And for what an utter moron my husband has been!"

"Janet!" Hank spluttered.

"He can use grief as an excuse but he was always cantankerous and held a grudge a mile long," Janet rolled his eyes as Tony choked out a chuckle.

"Don't worry though, we beat him into shape and made him realise he was being an idiot," Hope Van Dyne stepped forward.

"I'm surrounded by women who thankfully know better and can beat me into shape as well," Tony said, partly commiseratingly, partly proudly to Hank.

"Smart boy," Janet laughed.

"I am very impressed with the way that you fight, by the way, you are amazing!" Tony said to Hope.

"The suit…"

"Oh yeah the suit is fantastic but the way you use it and what it can do, and your fight style, just amazing!" He grinned.

"Oh, thank you,"

"I mean you obviously had to have an amazing brain to be able to create the suit but it just goes to show how incredibly intelligent you are in the way that you use it so seamlessly, using the shrinking back and forth during a fight to turn everything to your advantage. Also, the hello kitty pep dispenser, brilliant!" Tony enthused.

"Tony, you are...I believe the word is geeking out on the poor woman," Yon-Rogg said amusedly.

"I think it would be nerding out," Tony said thoughtfully before grinning again at Hope. "Sorry,"

"Oh no please, I hate being told how intelligent and impressive I am," Hope waved him off.

"We are going to get along real well," Tony laughed before squealing, actually squealing when a giant ant wandered passed. "Oh my Thor! That is absolutely amazing! I don't care if I lose a hand, I am going to pet you, yes I am, yes I am, you are adorably ugly, yes you are,"

"Hopefully he will stop petting the Flerken and concentrate on your ants," Yon-Rogg shrugged when the three Van Dyne/Pym family members turned to look at him from Tony where he was kneeling on the floor with an ant climbing over him as he scratched it.

"Not a chance, Goose is adorable," Tony muttered, not distracted from the ant.

"You say that when he is eating everyone in the Compound," Yon-Rogg muttered with a grimace.

"The cat?" Hope asked her mother.

"He wouldn't do that, he's a good kitty Flerken,"

"So, you're an alien," Hank said to Yon-Rogg.

"And you're a human," The Kree drawled as Janet and Hope turned to glare at him.

"I have been dying to look in your ship, would I be allowed sometime?" Hank said, and there was something boyish in his face that had Yon-Rogg relaxing.

"Of course, any time,"

"I am doing repairs on it, a little help and an extra set of eyes on some of the engineering would be helpful. Yon-Rogg is very impressive in a lot of ways, but his patchwork repairs make me want to cry for the poor thing," Tony said standing with the help of his Kree's hand.

"There is nothing wrong with my repairs, they worked,"

"They worked to make me cry,"

"The ship kept running,"

"And I have no idea how, honestly, some of the things that you did, I am shocked you didn't blow yourself up,"

"But I didn't so that shows I did something right,"

"Or you did something so bad that it was just on slow blow up,"

"That isn't even a thing,"

"It is and you were doing it to that poor ship!"

"That poor ship is fine, you just have OCD,"

"My neurosis has nothing to do with this, that ship was an atrocity to all engineers out there!"

"Oh do…"

"Would either of you like tea or coffee?" Janet asked, chuckling when they both turned to look at her, clearly having forgotten where they were.

"Pepper said that the ants deliver drinks on trays, will that happen?" Tony perked up.

"Yes, I will even have them bring cake," Hank snorted, amused despite himself.

"Cool!"

* * *

"So, Scott will be joining us in a week, he is spending a lot of time with his daughter Cassie and her mum and stepdad," Hope explained a few hours later.

"Mum and stepdad?" Tony blinked.

"It is an unusual setup, but since his first run as Ant-Man they all get along incredibly well," Hank snickered.

"And you are more than welcome to keep the house here and keep living within the safety of the Compound, though the FBI should be dealt with by next week, Pepper is scarily efficient," Tony nodded.

"Are you sure you do not mind us staying on the grounds? It would be nice to be somewhere secure for a while," Hope asked.

"Of course, look I know about wanting to keep your family safe, and the relief of knowing that you are somewhere secure. Plus this is a safe place in more than just security ways, I want this to be somewhere where we can all just let everything hang out, so to speak, and not have to worry about being judged for it," Tony promised.

"For kids like Peter?" Hank smiled, the smile of a father.

"Exactly, no judgement, no having to hold back. The ants can roam around and you guys can be as anty/quantamy as you want to be,"

"Thank you," Janet smiled.

"And of course you can set your lab up as well, not like there isn't the space," Tony shuffled.

"That would be wonderful, there is a lot that we want to do, things that we need to work out with the quantum world, having the security to do that will be nice," Hope sighed.

"Yeah we saw the video of your lab popping in and out of existence all over the place," Tony snorted.

"It was slightly stressful," Hank huffed.

"Well, I had better head back up, the kids will be home soon, you're more than welcome to come up for meals at any time, please don't think you need to be invited," Tony said as he stood.

"Thank you," Janet cupped his face once more before they left.

"You are too kind for your own good," Yon-Rogg huffed as they walked slowly back up to the Compound, reaching out to snag Tony's hand in his.

"What?" Tony blinked at him confused.

"That man disliked you merely because of your father and treated you with disdain until recently, and yet you have just opened up your home, and given them a lot, without any thought," The Kree shook his head fondly.

"I am not...they...it…"

"You are that bad, you need someone watching over you," Yon-Rogg shook his head.

"Oh, are you volunteering?" Tony asked softly.

"I'm not volunteering, you aren't getting a choice," The Kree snorted, but he squeezed Tony's hand gently.

"I don't think I am going to complain about that," Tony stepped closer to his Kree.

"Good," Yon-Rogg nodded before chuckling and nodded ahead of them.

Peter and Harley were clearly back from school and seemed to be having a race towards them, both of them shouting about something the other had done while Fury raced after them in a rage, covered in flour and bellowing threats at the two, something they clearly took seriously if their laughter was anything to go by.

* * *

Tony yawned as he walked into the kitchen, only to pause, narrowing his eyes suspiciously as he allowed his eyes to drift over the faces of Yon-Rogg, Pepper and Rhodey.

"Oh god, what now?" He sighed, shoulder slumping.

"There has been an unexpected reaction to your press conference," Pepper said gently, reaching out to take his cup and refill it, while Rhodey wheeled himself to his side and took his hand.

"Let me guess, the people have turned and are now on Team Cap, or a villain has taken offence to me trying to rebuild the Avengers or…"

"Stop," Yon-Rogg said firmly and Tony snapped his mouth shut and looked at him, his face was open, warm and angry on Tony's behalf, a confusing mixture that had Tony's heart thumping hard enough he wondered if Pepper and Rhodey heard it. "Stop presuming that people will see the worst in you, or that things are going to be your fault,"

"I…"

"No," The word was firm and Tony snapped his mouth shut. "It isn't something bad, but it is something that we are worried you are going to be overwhelmed with, which is why we are here, to support you,"

"Ok," Tony nodded accepting the cup from Pepper.

"If I have not said this before, I am saying it now, we are definitely keeping you. Even I can't get him to listen to me that quickly," Rhodey snorted.

"I am the Tony whisperer," Yon-Rogg shrugged and smirked when Tony spluttered as he inhaled the mouthful of coffee he had just taken.

"So, you were nominated the Tony whisperers as a whole were you?" He smiled.

"Yes, and him," Yon-Rogg pointed distasteful to Goose who was sitting on the counter and mewed under the attention.

"What?" Tony stared as his Kree picked Goose up like he was a bomb about to go off and shoved him into Tony's arms, letting go rapidly with a shudder and wiped his hands on the tea towel.

"Meow," Goose started purring and rubbed his face against Tony's before hopping up onto his shoulders and made himself comfortable there lying down.

"Right so I have my therapy Flerken, my Tony whisperers, so what is going on?" Tony asked.

"The PR department received a flood of letters for you after your conference, there was a mixture of course, but the majority were aimed at one part of your speech," Rhodey said as they made their way into the small seating room adjoining the kitchen that none of them really used.

"They read them and decided that you needed to see them, I know that you never normally really got all of these, just the select few, but they called and we agreed, you need to read them," Pepper added.

"It is in response to the statement you made about not being the hero that they had needed before," Yon-Rogg said as they walked into the room and there was 5 high piles of letters sitting there waiting for them,

"What?" Tony frowned confused.

"Start reading," Rhodey sat himself between Tony and the coffee table the letters were on, Pepper and Yon-Rogg seating themselves either side of him on the sofa. Rhodey reached out and snagged the first letter, handing it to Tony.

He went to question them more, but curiosity got the better of him, and he looked down at the letter and started reading.

_Dear Mr Stark_

_I saw your press conference, and I would firstly like to say I am truly glad that you are alive and well, and that you are back with us. I am sorry for what you went through, and I don't care that you are part alien now. You will always be Iron Man to me and a lot of others, and that is all that matters._

_You saved my life five years ago, I was 7 months pregnant at the time and you took the weight of an entire roof on you to stop it from crushing myself and three others. We could hear how much it hurt you, but you stood there, solid and took the weight until we were clear._

_I had a healthy baby boy three weeks later, and he is called Joseph Anthony. I now also have a little girl 3 called Poppy Maria, and I am pregnant again with another baby. None of us would be here if it was not for you._

_It hurt my heart to hear you say that you did not think you had been the hero the world needed, to me you are above and beyond that hero, and I had to write to you to tell you that you are a hero, and will always be my hero, my two children are here and alive because of you, and I have another on the way._

_This may be silly, and I have no clue if you will even get this, but I hope you do. Please never doubt that you are a hero. The world is a safer place because of you, and my children and I sleep better knowing you are protecting us._

_I have included a picture of my children and our latest baby scan, I hope that if you get this, if you ever doubt your worth again, seeing that picture will remind you you're the worlds hero._

_Yours_

_Kelly Sawyer._

Tony reached out and took the two photos Rhodey was holding out to him as Pepper gently took the letter from him, one photo was the baby scan, a vaguely human shape clear on the picture, the other was of a cheeky grinning little boy with his face painted as Iron Man grinning at the camera, and a little girl dressed as Iron Man, front teeth missing and grinning just as brightly. It was clearly Halloween.

"Here," Yon-Rogg carefully took the photos as Rhodey handed him another letter.

_Mr Iron Man,_

_You are my hero, you saved me and my daddy last year when a bad man blew up the bridge that we were on, you is in our car to make us safe and it was cool, you are my hero and I am glad you were there because you saved daddy and me, and mummy would have been sad without us._

_I want to be just like you when I'm growned up!_

_Johnny (and Johnny's mum and dad)_

Tony bit his lip and allowed Pepper to take the letter again, and took the third from Rhodey.

_Dear Mr Stark,_

_I know that you must receive letters like this all the time, but I wanted to say thank you for saving my life. I was in New York in 2012, and you saved my life. You, not any of the other Avengers, you saved me, and then I watched you fly into the mouth of one of those whale things, no hesitation and destroy it._

_You saved so many lives that day, you were the first one there, and you were the last one fighting. You have risked your life so many times for people, to save them. I was incredibly upset when I heard your conference and heard that you did not know that you are the hero that the world wants. You don't need to change, you are already that for us._

_You were the only one of the Avengers who listened to what people wanted, and did something about it. You were the only one that actually stood up for the people, and what they were asking, even if you did not fully approve of it._

_Thank you_

The fourth letter was passed to him and Yon-Rogg reached out to grip his thigh.

_Mr Stark,_

_I wanted to write to you to tell you that you changed my life. I was orphaned at a young age, and was living on the streets, I was a teenager who couldn't stay with the relatives that I was placed with because they were abusing me and I was terrified to go home. I was terrified on the streets as well, but it was safer than being with them._

_The Maria Stark Foundation that you started found me when I had nothing, I was starving, scared, I didn't even have a pair of shoes to my name. They listened to my story where no one else had, they got me a lawyer, they helped me press charges against the people that hurt me and made sure that I didn't have to go back to them ever again._

_I got to stay in one of the homes that the Foundation set up, I had a bed, clothes, three meals a day, I got my education back on track, and I had support every step of the way._

_I am 25 now and have a degree, I have my own home that I love, I even have a cat. I have a life._

_And I now work for the Maria Stark Foundation in the same home that took me in, helping others who are in the same situation._

_Iron Man didn't save my life, Tony Stark did, because you made sure that there are places like the home I stayed in for people like me to go to, you provide the help to make sure that our voices can speak out, and more importantly that we are heard._

_I know a lot of people say that you just throw money at these things and don't know what happens. But I know that is not true, I have spoken to you on the phone Mr Stark twice now when you have called out one of the kids here to check what was happening with them and to ask if there was anything else that needed doing. You showed up to the case of one of my friends when I was a resident here at the home because her father was a senator and his political clout was going to mean she had to go back to him._

_You care, and people know that. You are a hero here in this house Mr Stark because everyone is someone to you, no matter how little they think of themself. There are thousands of people out there in the same situation as I am, people who have lives and a future because of the Foundation and the work that you do for it, for us._

_Tommy Glist._

Tony's eyes took in the signature, and then the twenty-four under it, residents of the home.

The rest of the letters for all the same, people who had heard his words and reached out to him, telling him he was wrong. He was enough. He was their hero. Lives that he had touched and changed, lives saved.

Pepper, Rhodey and Yon-Rogg sat with him without complaint as he read through them all, silent support as his trembling hands took letter after letter.

Iron Man, yes, Tony Stark, yes.


	8. New Avengers

Chapter Eight

"It is amusing how special you thinking you are, truly it is,"

Steve stared at the man in front of him open-mouthed, clearly completely stunned and shocked at the way that this was going. Needless to say, it was not the way that he had expected at all.

"You think that you are something unique and special, everything special about you came in that formula, you yourself are nothing important and amazing, if it were not for that formula you would be not even a name on military records for the war, you would have been no one at all, a footnote on some medical record about you dying a young, probably miserable death,"

"Hey, I…" Steve tried to move and then remembered that his arms were chained to the table sitting between him and the man opposite him.

"And what you are because of the formula isn't really even that special anymore, how many mutants are there out there that can punch hard and run fast, they were born with their talents, not given them in a laboratory experiment. You think that you are something so special and should be respected for it when in reality, you're nothing different to Deadpool, the only difference being you turned out pretty. You still both signed up for experiments that you had no clue what you would turn out to be, and how you would be used,"

"Look, I didn't ask you here for you to…" Steve started to say but the man held his hand up.

"No, you asked me here to today because you still think that you are something important, something special, you still think that you are going to get out of here with a smack on the wrist, that Tony will help you," Yon-Rogg sneered at Steve Rogers, his expression saying everything about what he thought of this man.

"If none of that is true, why are you here?" Steve managed to smile a little, despite the thundering of his heart. The alien in front of him tilted his head, his unnaturally green eyes intent and searing as he looked at Steve...and found him wanting.

"I am here because you need to stop trying to contact Tony to assuage your guilt, and because you need to let go of the illusion that you have any way of fixing what you broke between you and Tony, because you need to understand that there are those that care for Tony and love him and we are not going to stand by and let you hurt him any more than you already have," Yon-Rogg paused before he speared Steve with his next look. "I am here because I love Tony Stark with everything that I am, and I need to tell you exactly what I think of you, because it is the only outlet that I have for my anger towards you, because Tony would not be happy if I rip you into tiny little pieces and see if your fucking serum can heal that!"

"I…"

"I did extensive research into you and your relationship with Tony while I was watching him cling onto life and fight for it after you tried to kill him,"

"I didn't try to…" Steve tried to say but the other was on a roll it seemed.

"I have also done my research since we got back, both through FRIDAY, and the others, and I realised, you're jealous. It is understandable of course, who wouldn't be," Yon-Rogg shrugged.

"Jealous, jealous of what, I am not jealous!" Steve frowned.

"Of Tony, of course, and the fact that he is ten times the man that you will ever be. As I said the only thing that is special about you is your strength, speed and healing, things that many, many people possess nowadays, and it wasn't even something that you were born with, it is something that was given to you by scientists, by Tony's father. Tony, he is something special, something unique, there are billions of people on this planet, and there is no one like him,"

Steve watched as the other smiled fondly as he spoke of Tony.

"Even without Iron Man, Tony was always going to be an amazing person, he was always going to be remembered in the history books for who he is and for his talents, for his amazing mind and creations, he was never ever going to be an obscure footnote, his name is going to be like Einstein, Newton, Galileo, spoken and remembered for what they created, what they figured out, for how they advance humankind into the future. Iron Man, he is just a plus. Something that Tony created himself, with his own skill, talent and knowledge to help people, everything that Iron Man is has come from Tony, Iron Man is 100% Tony Stark. Captain America? He is maybe 15% Steve Rogers, and that is being generous,"

"How dare…"

"It must have burned you up, you thought you at least had the fact that you were willing to sacrifice yourself for this superhero gig, but Tony wasn't, and then he risked his life getting the helicarrier going again, he risked his life flying that nuke out, and you realised, Tony Stark was EVERYTHING that you weren't, everything that you would never be. And now, you're going to be a footnote to Tony, the 'hero' that tried to kill him and turned him into a villain, scientists are going to study you, poke at your brain and your blood to try and work out if the serum running through it caused your complete and utter lack of morals and your bloodthirstiness, Erskine gave two people that formula, and both of them turned out to be murderers, two for two."

"No...no…" Steve felt sick.

"I do apologise, attempted murderer, for Tony, those civilians that you killed in trying to save your best friend, they might have something else to say,"

"I didn't…"

"When it comes down to it, you're nothing special, Steve Rogers, you're a blunt weapon who tries to punch their way out of everything, where Tony Stark thinks a hundred ways around it, Tony Stark has brought the world peace, he is the hero you always dreamt of being, and who we both know you will never be. You are lesser than Tony in every way,"

"I am Captain America," Steve gulped.

"You are strong and heal quickly," Yon-Rogg reared back and punched the table, splitting it in half easily. He held his hand up so Steve could watch the wounded knuckles sluggishly bleeding blue blood healing. "There are many of us in the world, there is only one Tony Stark," He smirked.

"I…"

"Stay away from Tony, no more messages, no more little notes from your lawyer, no more. If Tony wants to hear whatever pathetic apology you think you have the right to feed him, he knows where you are. But he isn't going to forgive you, and he definitely isn't going to help you, he has no need for you," Yon-Rogg shrugged lazily before opening the door and leaving the room, leaving Captain America sitting behind him, stunned.

When he stepped out into the monitoring room Rhodey, Peter and Harley all stared back at him wide-eyed.

* * *

Tony looked at him with a furious glare.

"Hello," Yon-Rogg said walking into the lab.

Tony glared for a beat longer before huffing angrily and turned back to carry on hammering at the metal he had under his hand.

"Go on then!" Tony snapped.

"What?"

"Where were you?"

"I was at the prison Rogers is being held at," Yon-Rogg blinked when Tony spun to look at him confused.

"You didn't….evade or lie," Tony frowned dropping the hammer onto the table.

"No...why would I?" Yon-Rogg tilted his head.

"Because you know I will be angry about it?" Tony asked rather than stated.

"Yes, and I did before I went. I decided to go, and so I should face your wrath," Yon-Rogg shrugged crossing his arms.

"I don't need protecting!" Tony glowered.

"I know that," Yon-Rogg agreed, clearly throwing Tony off course with the answer, "you are the last person that I would think needs protecting and for me to intervene on their behalf because they can not cope. Even when I rescued you, you did most of the work, all I did was supply the blood, you fought to live, fought to carry on and refused to be beaten,"

"Why did you go then?" Tony asked confused.

"For myself," Yon-Rogg said softly, dangerously, pushing himself away from the worktable he had leant against and stalked towards Tony. "Because I am furious at him and what he did and who he is, and because I am not allowed to tear him apart, I wanted to make myself feel better by telling him exactly what I felt about him,"

"Oh...and are you feeling better now you have beaten your chest?" Tony licked his lips as he intently watched the other getting closer and closer to him.

"Not really, I want to hurt him still, I wish to beat into his head the truth of who and what he is, because I think he will never, ever truly understand how insignificant he is compared to others," the Kree stepped right up to Tony and then carried on when the Genius stepped back, keeping moving until Tony was pressed against the worktable behind him, staring up into green eyes that looked like they held a storm.

"Wha…"

"You're like a sun, we orbit you and are constantly pulled towards you, wanting to bathe ourselves in your light if only for a short amount of time because you help us bloom and flourish and we all want to just be close to you. Rogers hates it because he desperately wants to pretend that he is the sun, when he knows that he is nothing close to it," Yon-Rogg said softly, reaching up to tenderly brush Tony's cheek.

"You are…" Tony started to clearly argue but was cut off when gentle, unsure lips brushed his own, testingly and questioningly. He could do something more than press up into the kiss, reaching up for the man that had come to mean so much to him so quickly, the man that his soul and heart seemed to know as though they had spent a lifetime together before.

"I am nothing more than a planet in your orbit, lucky enough to be gifted with your presence and your light, and that is more than enough for me, it always will be as long as I may stay here, by your side," Yon-Rogg murmured against Tony's shiny lips.

"I...I think that you have how special I am wrong, but I don't want you to go anywhere," Tony whispered.

"Perhaps all suns think that they are merely just another star in the sky. I am going nowhere for as long as you will have me. And I will never lie to you Tony, even if I think that the truth is something that will hurt you," Yon-Rogg shook his head running his fingers through Tony's hair.

"Yon?"

"Hmm?" The Kree smiled.

"Kiss me again?" Tony grinned going up onto his toes and pulled his love back to him.

* * *

"Faster," Yon-Rogg smiled when Tony's eyes narrowed and the hint of a challenge flared in them. He was able to dodge Tony's hits, but only just, Tony had been skilled in fighting before he had gained Kree strength and speed, now he was breathtaking when he fought, still learning and adjusting to his new strength and skills, but adjusting quickly.

Not that Yon-Rogg expected anything less of course.

"Not bad," The Kree smirked when they stopped.

"Not bad! Not bad! I will show you not bad!" Tony huffed.

"Your version of flirting worries me, not that I am surprised with him," Carol snorted as she walked passed nodding to Yon-Rogg.

The elder Kree shot her a dry glare while Tony's cheeks flushed a delightful red that made Yon-Rogg a little less annoyed at her.

"You are still healing after our fight yesterday, so no, you won't, not today. Besides, I am training Peter next, and you have time with Harley," Yon-Rogg smiled at Tony.

"Ugh, I feel fine!" Tony huffed, definitely not pouting.

"Indulge me," Yon-Rogg requested gently.

"Oi, mum, dad! Stop flirting and hurry up!" Harley shouted across the training room, sending Hope and Pepper into laughter.

"I had better be Mum in that scenario Kid! I am way more nurturing!" Tony shouted.

"Amen to that," Carol snorted.

"I was perfectly nurturing with you!" Yon-Rogg scowled.

"Ah-ha!" Carol snickered.

"I was! How wasn't I?!" Yon-Rogg stomped after her annoyed.

"Bye!" Tony threw up his hands at his retreating lover.

"Aww, I love you mum," Harley smiled throwing his arms around Tony's neck. He shrieked in laughter when Tony pounced on him and started tickling his sides.

"Harley!" Peter laughingly dived into action firing a couple of webs at Tony.

"Oh no, you don't!" Pepper fired her repulsers at the webs and managed to knock them off course.

"Oh, it is on!" Scott smoothly doubled in size and reached for Pepper, for Yon-Rogg to use his Gauntlets and left him off his feet. Peter fired his webs at Yon-Rogg, but Hope shrunk herself and jumped through the gaps in the webs shrinking them just as she was through them so the Kree barely felt them.

Half an hour later when Fury walked into the training room to get them for supper he stared around the room with mild horror, dodging a falling piece of wood, and stepping over a lump of webbing.

Really he was a glorified babysitter.

* * *

"Get your asses moving!" The one-eyed agent bellowed. There were a few grumbles and choice words - Harley - before the new Avengers filtered into the living room, suited and booted to their very best. They all looked every inch the hero that they were.

Some of them were in civilian clothes considering their identities were already known, or they didn't care to be confirming suspicions, Tony, Rhodey, Hope, Hank, Janet, Vision, Jess and Luke were in this group.

Others were wearing their superhero costumes to ensure their secret was kept. Pepper, Peter, Scott and Matt were all covered up. Scott's only reason was Cassie and her mum and stepdad, determined to limit the risk to them.

Yon-Rogg and Carol stood in their Kree uniform, Carol's in the colours that she had become well known for, wearing with pride the uniform that was only hers. And Yon-Rogg was standing there in his Kree uniform, something that he had admitted he had barely worn since Carol had sent him away from Earth. Now he was wearing it, and he was wearing it with pride, in the colours of the original emerald green and with the new addition of gold.

Fury rolled his eye at the soppy Kree who scowled back and turned to content himself with the happy blush on Tony's face as he kept looking at the uniform.

"Well, I will see you guys when you get back," Harley sighed.

"Why, you not coming?" Tony smirked, squeezing Yon-Rogg's hand before letting it go and walking over to where Harley was standing trying not to pout and sulk.

"You're Iron Man, and I have been training in your armour," Harley shrugged.

"Iron Man is taken," Tony nodded, before reaching forward and clipping a housing unit to Harley's shirt, tapping it and releasing nanobots to encase Harley fully in his own blue and red suit.

Those watching gasped or murmured in appreciation, no one but Tony, the boys and Yon-Rogg had seen the release of the Nanos before.

"What…" Harley gasped, looking at the suit stunned, it was definitely not the one that they had worked on together for Iron Man.

"Iron Man is taken, Iron Mechanic is not," Tony offered nervously.

"I can...I can really join up as well?" Harley asked softly, sounding unsure enough that everyone turned and pointedly didn't listen, except for Yon-Rogg and Peter who quickly made their way to the two.

"You have proven yourself in training, you will be on the same level as Peter, only going out when we tell you, not during school hours unle…."

"Unless it is is the end of the world and we're going to die anyway," Peter and Harley recited laughingly.

"Cheeky buggers," Tony huffed.

"You have earned this," Yon-Rogg patted Harley's shoulder. "You are a strong warrior, and I will be proud to carry on training you, and fight by your side,"

"I made this for you, and only you, this is your first armour. I wouldn't have done that if I did not think you're ready," Tony smiled.

Harley hesitated for a second before he tapped the housing unit and brought back the Nanos before wrapping his arms around the two of them and squeezed them tightly into a hug.

"Get in here webhead," Harley huffed grabbing Peter and tugging him into the hug as well.

Over the heads of the boys and Tony fussing over them, Carol winked at Yon-Rogg. Happy that her friend had finally found the place where he belonged.

Though she did nearly wet herself laughing when Yon-Rogg yelped and dived behind Tony, complaining loudly, when Goose brushed against their legs to join in the hug, focussing on the Kree's legs.

* * *

"...and so I would like to introduce you to, the new Avengers!" Tony stepped back and held his hands out with all the showmanship that he possessed, and the crowd went wild.

Reporters were shouting for them, shouting questions to the group as a whole and to individuals. People were shouting out questions wanting to know their powers, what they were, how they got them, what they could do.

Yon-Rogg was of desperate interest to them, everyone wanting to know about him saving Tony, what it meant that he was Kree, why he was here, where his home was, how long he was here for, what his powers were, what could he do, were he and Carol related, how did he feel for Tony, did he know Tony before.

They were already obsessed with the new Avengers, and they could see the great potential that the new group had, the vast differences of all 17 of them blending well together.

* * *

Natasha looked down at the papers in her hands, the one that she had been allowed to have and read. She knew why now, her guards were being cruel.

She was being allowed a glimpse of what she could have been part of, where she could have belonged if she had not made the wrong choices.

If she had not placed her bet on the wrong horse.

She wasn't there, she wasn't standing by Tony's side. She was in prison, likely for the rest of her life considering different parties had heard that not only was she in prison, but she had had the protection of Shield and the Avengers removed from her, and there was no chance that they would be swooping in, besides the lawyer that Tony had offered to her and the others.

With the lawyer, she might breathe free air when she was 99.

Setting the paper down on the table in front of her, her eyes couldn't leave the photo that lay there, taunting her.

Tony looked good. He looked healthy, happy, cared for. Something that they had never given him, never been able to give him because of their preconceived notions about him, because of who they were sure he was, and because of their quickness to point the finger and blame him, all of them expecting him to be more than human because he was Tony Stark, while shouting about how their one faults were due to their humanity.

They had never allowed him to be a human.

They had never allowed him to be flawed, to be tired, to make mistakes, they had flayed him for daring to be less than perfect. Blaming him for daring to be less than the great Tony Stark. And then accusing him of being nothing but that.

Now their actions had led to him to not being fully human anymore, he had needed another race to stop in to help him survive them.

And he looked good for it.

She was not sure which was the worst torture.

That she could have been there, with Tony, but had allowed her prejudice against him to turn her away from him at the last minute and now she would never stand with him again.

Or that he was looking so good with them out of his life.

* * *

Hands swirled with an angry, vision red glow as they tightened around the paper they were holding, tightening and tightening until the paper ripped apart in two jagged sections, the picture of the New Avengers torn, but Tony Stark was still standing there, who, alive and winning, succeeding, the darling of the world again!

Magic struck out, hitting walls and furniture, dropping bricks and chunks of wood and plaster down upon the bodies of the family that had sat against the wall and note moved until they died several days ago, not by choice of course.

Screwing up the papers the owner of the magic hissed angrily as the house came down around her head, her magic forming a dome to protect her.

Tony Stark would not be allowed to carry on living, he would not be allowed to carry on winning, coming out of situations when he was in the wrong looking like the hero he had never been. She would not allow it.

She would do what Captain America had been too weak, too pathetic, too stupid to finish.

She was going to kill Tony Stark.


End file.
